There is a growing push from lawmakers attempting to reverse President Donald Trump’s broad orders to terminate collective bargaining agreements with federal unions.
Senate Democrats introduced a companion bill for the Protect America’s Workforce Act on Wednesday, at the same time that the House’s version of the bill is nearing the possibility of a floor vote. If enacted, the Protect America’s Workforce Act would nullify Trump’s executive orders to cancel collective bargaining for the vast majority of federal agencies.
The now bicameral bill would reverse both of Trump’s orders that told most agencies to terminate their contracts and de-recognize their federal unions, citing national security concerns. The entire Senate Democratic Caucus, as well as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), have signed onto the new bill.
Senators who co-sponsored the legislation said they believe Trump’s orders earlier this year were an overreach of a narrow, rarely used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, which allows a president to cancel collective bargaining for national security purposes.
“Donald Trump’s executive orders ripping away collective bargaining rights from over a million federal workers constitute one of the biggest union busts in American history,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said Wednesday. “Eliminating these basic labor protections is a thinly veiled retribution campaign under the guise of national security.”
The House bill that is also seeking to reverse Trump’s anti-union actions was first introduced in April, just days after the president signed his initial executive order. The legislation currently has 222 cosponsors, including seven Republicans.
In June, co-sponsors of the House bill created a discharge petition for the Protect America’s Workforce Act, in an attempt to push the legislation to a floor vote. The petition has steadily gained momentum, with another seven lawmakers signing onto the petition just this month. Currently, the petition has 216 signatures, including three Republicans. It’s two signatures away from the 218 required to force a House floor vote on the bill.
Discharge petitions seldom gain enough support to reach a floor vote. But last year, lawmakers managed to get the required signatures on a discharge petition to push forward the Social Security Fairness Act in the House. It ultimately led to the passage of the bipartisan legislation and the subsequent repeal of both the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset in early January.
On the Senate side, however, the option for a discharge petition doesn’t exist, creating a potentially higher hurdle to clear for the companion bill of the Protect America’s Workforce Act. But federal union leaders said they are hopeful the Senate’s version of the bill will gain more bipartisan support.
Trump signed his initial anti-union executive order in March, and a second executive order in late August expanding the number of impacted agencies that were told to end their agreements with federal unions.
Federal unions quickly sued the administration over the president’s actions earlier this year. While about half a dozen lawsuits remain ongoing, several agencies have already moved forward with terminating their union contracts after an appeals court decision green-lit agencies to begin implementing Trump’s orders.
Combined, Trump’s two executive orders would impact nearly 1 million federal employees once fully enacted, according to the AFL-CIO. Based on the agencies that have so far completed implementation of Trump’s orders, about 450,000 federal employees have already seen their union contracts canceled this year.
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“These moves are an assault on our fundamental freedoms and undercut critical services people across the country rely on,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
At the same time, civilian federal employees working at the Department of Defense may be a step closer to seeing their collective bargaining rights restored through different means. The House-passed version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision stating that none of the NDAA’s funds can be used to implement Trump’s orders to exclude agencies from collective bargaining.
In practice, the provision would exempt all DoD civilian employees from Trump’s executive orders. The House’s proposed exemption for DoD civilian employees, however, is not currently contained in the Senate’s version of the 2026 NDAA.
“Collective bargaining rights help improve federal operations, enhance government efficiency, and improve agencies’ recruitment and retention efforts,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said. “Restoring these rights for Department of Defense civilian employees will help strengthen and advance our mission.”
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