Last week in the final hours before adjourning for August recess, the Senate confirmed 65 of President Trump’s nominees, including appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In confirming Marvin Kaplan to the NLRB, and Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson to the FERC, the Senate has installed three individuals that NRMCA has been supporting since their nominations. In March in a Government Affairs Committee meeting, NRMCA presented Mr. Kaplan as an exemplary nominee who would not engage in the kind of overreaching the Obama-era was accused of. While Mr. Kaplan’s confirmation restores a 2-2 Republican-Democrat balance on the NLRB, it will allow the Republican members to hold a 2-1 majority in the large number of 3-member panels that hear labor disputes. The confirmation of Mr. Chatterjee and Mr. Powelson provide a quorum at FERC, allowing it to resume activities for the first time since February. FERC is responsible for permitting decisions on energy infrastructure projects like natural gas pipelines and export terminals. 

Each of these nominees will play a role in President Trump’s deregulation and economic recovery agenda, by ensuring that businesses are not hampered by an overzealous NLRB and that permitting for energy infrastructure projects can be approved expeditiously. NRMCA applauds these confirmations and will continue to push the Senate to pass Trump’s last NLRB nominee to ensure an NLRB that upholds the law and does not overstep its bounds.