Secret Ballot Watch

There’s a compromise version of the Employee Free Choice Act that’s almost ready … or is it?

In a speech before the AFL-CIO last month, Sen. Arlen Specter said an EFCA deal had been “pounded out” and it would pass before year’s end.

The newly Democratic lawmaker received great applause from the crowd in response to this surprising announcement. He also received a great many questions from reporters and even some fellow EFCA supporters about what exactly he meant. National Journal’s CongressDaily tried to clear up the confusion here: 

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“After a key legislator described a pending compromise on card-check legislation Tuesday, backers scrambled to tamp down speculation that a deal on the labor reform bill has been finalized. …

“Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin, an outspoken proponent of the union-backed bill, declined to discuss the details of a potential compromise.

“‘I've not discussed it publicly because it's not quite ready [for me to] do so yet,’ Harkin said, adding that much work has been done to hammer out compromise language that both skittish Democrats and union leaders can swallow.

“Specter's office emphasized late Tuesday that no formal legislative language has been completed, saying that the senator, who abruptly jumped from the Republican Party to Democratic ranks earlier this year, was simply expressing optimism that a deal may be reached.

“Senate negotiators have not met to discuss the legislation since July.”

Dann and Hunt, “Senators Say Deal On Card-Check Measure Not Yet Final,” CongressDaily (subscription required), 09.16.09

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Specter’s comments are just the latest in a long line of murky pronouncements about the act’s prospects in Congress and details of closed-door negotiations on alternative plans for the bill.

For example, Sen. Sherrod Brown, a key EFCA negotiator, has been described as “not happy” with the compromise version – and unsure if it will gain the votes needed for passage.

It was not so long ago that Senate Majority Harry Reid declared that EFCA will not get a vote because “we have too many other things on our plate.”  This was roughly a month after Roll Call reported that Reid and other Senate Democrats were looking for ways to railroad the bill through the chamber as fast as possible to avoid debate and opposition.

Sen. Tom Harkin, another key EFCA dealmaker, has declined to provide details of EFCA’s progress but has said he “took it off the front-burner and put it on the back-burner, so it is still on warm, OK?”

Hot, cold, warm, whatever. The Employee Free Choice Act has been a terrible bill from the start, with its ability to kill jobs in an already down economy, force government contracts on struggling small businesses, and set aside a worker’s right to a secret ballot. It’s a mess, plain and simple, and the best way to clean it up is to not pass it in the first place.

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