Senate Panel Clears Boeing Lawyer, Paves Way to Restore NLRB Quorum

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved Scott Mayer’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board by a 12 to 11 party line vote on Wednesday, advancing a pick that had been tabled at the panel’s October meeting. The move brings the full Senate closer to restoring the board’s ability to decide cases after more than three months of near total inactivity.

Mayer, Boeing’s chief legal counsel since 2022, is a seasoned corporate labor lawyer with previous positions at Morgan Lewis, InterContinental Hotels Group, MGM Resorts International and Aramark. His nomination was contentious from the outset, in part because senators pressed him on a recent strike by more than 3,200 Boeing machinists in the St. Louis area who sought higher pay and accepted a new five year contract last month. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri had questioned the fairness of executive compensation while workers were on strike and raised broader safety concerns tied to Boeing’s operations during earlier committee testimony.

The NLRB has been operating with only a single member, Democrat David Prouty, since President Trump in January removed Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox and Republican Marvin Kaplan’s term expired in August. The loss of the three member quorum has left hundreds of cases in limbo, including dozens in which employers are challenging union election victories, and has effectively prevented the board from issuing new decisions. Wilcox has filed a lawsuit challenging her removal and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed her removal to remain in effect while the litigation proceeds.

Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont argued the committee should halt consideration of new nominees until Wilcox is reinstated. "We need an NLRB that does what it was designed to do: to stand up for workers who are being treated unfairly by the companies they work for," Sanders said.

The HELP Committee had previously approved two other Trump nominees for the agency in October, retired NLRB lawyer James Murphy for a board seat and Crystal Carey of Morgan Lewis to serve as general counsel, but the full Senate has not yet scheduled confirmation votes for those nominations. If both Murphy and Mayer are confirmed by the full Senate, the board would shift to a Republican majority for the first time since 2021, a change that would influence the agency’s approach to employer practices, collective bargaining disputes and the rules governing union elections.

In a separate action on Wednesday, the committee also advanced the nomination of Mary Anne Carter to chair the National Endowment for the Arts, a role she held during President Trump’s first term. Mayer could not immediately be reached for comment, and Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The full Senate now faces a decision that will determine whether the NLRB can resume its central role in adjudicating labor disputes or remain constrained while litigation over its membership continues.