Will the Senate stand with 1 million union members?
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives took one of their first genuinely pro-worker actions of the year. The House voted 231–195 to pass the Protecting America’s Workforce Act (PAWA) to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers. Twenty Republicans joined 211 Democrats (all Democrats voting) to pass this critical legislation. This is the first and only time that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to overturn a Trump executive order since he took office in January.
Why did Congress have to vote to restore these rights for federal workers in the first place? And how did members of Congress and labor advocates manage to push this vote through against Speaker Johnson’s wishes?
As soon as Trump took office, he began an all-fronts assault on the federal government and its workers. Between Trump, DOGE (then headed by billionaire Elon Musk), Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, and other right-wing figures, this administration has illegally withheld government funds and grants, attempted to fire federal workers en masse, and attacked independent federal agencies responsible for enforcing labor and consumer protections. But federal workers’ unions stood in the way of some of these goals. Not only were they suing to stop the Trump administration’s illegal actions, but union protections combined with federal civil service protections also prevent government employees  from being fired for political reasons, or without cause. And as long as nonpartisan public servants continue to make up the majority of agency staff, the Trump administration has a check on their ability to violate the law.
So, Trump targeted federal worker unions. In March, Trump issued an executive order that stripped union protections from more than 1 million federal workers across dozens of federal agencies. This was the single largest act of union busting in American history. And in advance of Labor Day, Trump issued another executive order expanding these actions to additional agencies. Despite ongoing litigation, some agencies have unilaterally canceled collective bargaining agreements with the unions that represent their employees. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced in early August that it terminated union contracts for 400,000 employees.
In response, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME-02) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) introduced the Protecting America’s Workforce Act. While the bill could have languished forever given that Speaker Mike Johnson had no interest in restoring collective bargaining rights for federal workers, Reps. Golden and Fitzpatrick, and the labor movement, worked hard to win enough support for the bill to pass a discharge petition. A discharge petition is a procedural tool in Congress that can allow for forcing a vote if enough members of Congress disagree with the Speaker. If more than half of the House signs a petition to “discharge” the bill, it is given the chance to get the up or down vote it deserves. In November, the petition finally earned enough support to cross the threshold and force a vote in the House.
The bill will now head to the Senate, where it also has bipartisan support. All Democratic senators as well as Independents are cosponsors of the Senate version of PAWA.  Despite its widespread, bipartisan support, the bill will not pass without a fight. It will soon be Republican senators’ turn to answer: Which side are you on?