By Edwin S. Hopson
On July 24, 2013, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held an executive session to discuss and vote on the President’s recent nominations of Democrats Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa and NancyJeanSchiffer to be Members of the National Labor Relations Board. Hirozawa is currently Chief Counsel to NLRB Chairman Pearce. Schiffer was most recently Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO.
Ranking Member Alexander (R-TN) voiced objections to both nominees, opining that he doubted their impartiality. He also noted that some outstanding written questions to the two nominees remained to be answered. On motion of Committee Chairman Harkin (D-Iowa) to report the two nominations favorably out of committee, both nominations were approved by a vote of 13 to 9.
Harkin also agreed that the record should remain open for the consideration of answers to the outstanding questions, and stated that he expected a vote on the nominations by the full Senate during the week of July 29.