Don Nickles: “The President exceeded his power. I will state I am very confident that, if we are not successful with this amendment…”

“The President exceeded his power. I will state I am very confident that, if we are not successful with this amendment, it will be tested in court and this Executive order will be thrown out on constitutional grounds. I am very confident of that fact. But we should stop it now. The President is playing politics. He is trying to appease a special interest group. I think it is unfortunate. What about the substance of it? I heard my colleague make the statement, ``Well, the people who are pushing this amendment are just against organized labor.'' That is not true. I think the people should have the right to organize. If people want to strike, if they do not want to work, they should have that right as well. Likewise, employers have to have the right to hire replacement workers. If they cannot do that, they cannot keep the doors open. In many cases, you might be a critical subassembly of a particular part that has to happen to make this entire unit come together on time and on budget, and if an employer cannot hire replacement workers to make that happen, then they could be in violation of the original terms of that contract. They could lose the whole contract. The entire country, if you are talking about a Government contract, could end up paying an enormous amount for not being on time and complying with the terms of the contract. This is enormous power the President is trying to delegate to the Secretary of Labor.”