On the recordFebruary 16, 2011
This amendment sets a new standard of irresponsibility that I hope the House never again emulates. Let's assume that a worker who is trying to organize a union is fired because of his or her union organizing activity, files a complaint against the employer for an unfair labor practice, and the National Labor Relations Board is in the process of determining whether that claim is right or wrong and what should happen as a result. Or, let's imagine that a worker believes that he or she has not been properly represented by the union they are in, and they file a claim against their union claiming that the union has failed in its duty to represent that worker. This amendment says that both of those claims and others will just stop in the middle. We will pull the plug from the adjudication of the rights of these Americans. I frankly think that it's ironic that a majority which chooses to define itself in terms of its great devotion to the Constitution may be proposing an amendment that violates the due process rights of American citizens kind of on its face. If you file a claim and a duly constituted adjudicatory body starts to hear that claim, my sense is the Congress cannot step in and interrupt that claim in the middle of its adjudication and take your rights away. But that appears to be what is happening here.
