Tom Harkin: “I say to my friend from Kentucky, fairness and equity? OK. Let's talk about fairness and equity. Let's talk about this.…”

“I say to my friend from Kentucky, fairness and equity? OK. Let's talk about fairness and equity. Let's talk about this. Mr. Becker was brought up in our committee last fall, along with Mark Pearce and Mr. Brian Hayes. They all went through our committee-- bipartisan. Mr. Enzi, the ranking Republican on our committee, voted for that, and so did the Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski. The names were then forwarded to the Senate. They came to the Senate, and the leadership on the Republican side decided to filibuster-- decided to filibuster. We had an agreement to move this package forward on the National Labor Relations Board. Fairness and equity? Since 1985, we have never had a hearing for a member to be on the National Labor Relations Board who wasn't nominated for Chair because when the Republicans were in power, they would have their people, we would have ours, we would agree, and they would go through. That is what we did last fall with Mr. Becker and Mr. Pearce and Mr. Hayes. And I thought things were fine. That is the way we have always done things. We agreed. We came out on the floor. And then the Republican leadership decided to filibuster--decided to filibuster.”