NLRB Regains Quorum as Senate Confirms Trump Labor Slate

The National Labor Relations Board will have its quorum restored after the US Senate confirmed six new officials for crucial labor positions in the Trump administration.

By a 53-43 vote, senators approved a package of nominees including James Murphy and Scott Mayer as NLRB members and Crystal Carey as NLRB general counsel. The board will look to hit the ground running after almost 11 months without a quorum to clear the backlog of cases that have built up and pursue a more employer-friendly policy agenda.

The NLRB has been unable to issue decisions since President Donald Trump fired Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox shortly after taking office. Marvin Kaplan—the Republican NLRB member made chair under Trump—left the agency after his term expired in August, leaving the board with only one member.

Mayer most recently worked as chief labor council at Boeing Co., but has also worked as a corporate labor attorney for MGM Resorts International, Intercontinental Hotels Group, and Aramark. Murphy is a career NLRB staffer, having served as an attorney for dozens of board members and chief counsel for Harry Johnson and Kaplan.

The Senate nominee package also included picks for the Department of Labor. Rosario Palmieri will serve as assistant secretary of labor in a policy-making role and Anthony D’Esposito will helm the DOL’s Office of Inspector General. Henry Mack will take over the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration.

D’Esposito and the NLRB’s Carey both had a rocky confirmation process, facing heavy questioning in committee.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) grilled Carey on her positions on captive audience meetings and her prosecutorial discretion as the NLRB’s top lawyer during her hearing in July. She was most recently a partner with management-side firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP and is expected to lead an effort to dismantle worker-friendly NLRB precedents set during the Biden administration, including tougher restrictions on workplace rules and severance agreements, and more stringent protections for union organizing.

D’Esposito encountered criticism and questions from Democratic senators in both the labor and government affairs committees. Lawmakers voiced skepticism that he could serve as inspector general—a traditionally non-partisan position—in an unbiased way with his history as a Republican representative, which was marked by his own ethics inquiries.

Palmieri, most recently a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, will lead the DOL’s policy and regulation branch as the department looks to roll back labor rules under Trump’s deregulation mandate, including those around gig workers and overtime pay.

Mack has served as a chancellor for the Florida Department of Education, as well as a professor, lecturer, and administrator at various Florida universities and is taking over the ETA as it assumes administrative responsibilities of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and federal programs from the Department of Education.