A rare cross-party coalition in the House forced a contentious labor-rights fight to the forefront on Wednesday, setting up a dramatic showdown over President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting federal worker unions.
According to Fox News, the push began when Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, triggered an infrequently used maneuver — a discharge petition — to force the chamber to consider his bill, the Protect America’s Workforce Act.
With enough signatures to bypass leadership’s objections, Golden’s proposal vaulted onto the House floor and immediately reshaped the political landscape.
By Wednesday evening, lawmakers voted 222-200 to begin debate on the measure. All Democrats backed the move, but the real surprise came from the 13 Republicans who crossed party lines to join them. Their support ensured the bill cleared its first procedural barrier and set the stage for Thursday’s high-stakes rule vote.
The GOP members who voted to advance the legislation were Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick LaLota of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Mike Lawler of New York, Tom Kean of New Jersey, Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, Zach Nunn of Iowa, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, and Mike Turner of Ohio.
Five of those Republicans — Fitzpatrick, Bresnahan, Bacon, Lawler, and LaLota — had already signed Golden’s discharge petition alongside 213 Democrats, signaling from the outset that a bipartisan showdown was looming.
Golden’s bill seeks to reverse a March 2025 executive order from Trump that barred collective bargaining across wide swaths of the federal government. The order affected workers at a long list of agencies, including critical components of Defense, State, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Energy, Homeland Security, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Agriculture.
The move to undo the order represents a rare moment when the House’s razor-thin GOP majority fractures. With Republicans able to lose only two votes on any party-line measure, even a small group of defectors can upend leadership’s plans — a dynamic that has made discharge petitions unusually common this year.
Many of the Republicans backing Golden’s bill represent districts where union support is politically influential or where bipartisanship is essential for survival. Several face competitive re-election campaigns in states with strong labor constituencies.
The legislation now heads into another procedural vote on Thursday. If it passes that hurdle, the House will move to a final vote on whether to repeal the executive order outright. From there, the bill would need Senate approval before landing on Trump’s desk.
The coming votes will determine whether the coalition that formed this week was a fleeting alliance — or a decisive break in the GOP’s stance on federal labor rights.
