The House on Friday morning rejected a controversial amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization bill that would have made it easier to form air and rail unions. Failure to pass the amendment will make it much harder to win Senate passage of the FAA bill and sets up a likely veto of the bill even if the Senate were to approve it.
The amendment, from Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), would have allowed a National Mediation Board (NMB) decision from 2010 to stand. That decision allowed unions to be formed based only on the votes of voting workers. Prior to last year's change, non-voting workers were counted as "no" votes.
The FAA bill, H.R. 658, repeals the NMB decision, and LaTourette's amendment would have removed this language from the bill. Earlier this week, the White House warned it would veto the FAA bill unless the labor language was removed.
Only 16 Republicans voted for the LaTourette amendment, which failed in a 206-220 vote.
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