Beltway Buzz, December 19, 2025

Senate Confirms NLRB, DOL Nominees. After clearing an initial procedural hurdle late last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed a slate of ninety-seven presidential nominees this week, prior to heading home for the end-of-year holidays. Included in the package are James Murphy and Scott Mayer, nominated to be members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), as well as Crystal Carey, nominated to be the Board’s general counsel. Upon being sworn in, Murphy and Mayer will provide the Board with a functioning quorum. However, as the Buzz has discussed previously, if they follow Board tradition, Murphy and Mayer will need a third vote—which they are unlikely to get from current Democratic Board Member David Prouty—in order to begin making new policy and reversing Biden-era Board decisions.

Also confirmed as part of the package were Rosario Palmieri, who will serve as assistant secretary of labor for policy in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Henry Mack III, who will serve as assistant secretary of labor and lead the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration, and Anthony D’Esposito, who will serve as the DOL’s inspector general.

President Trump Expands Travel Ban. On December 16, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a new proclamation further restricting the entrance of foreign nationals from certain designated countries into the United States. On June 4, 2025, President Trump issued Proclamation 10949, which established a prohibition on entry for foreign nationals from twelve countries and a partial restriction on seven countries. The latest proclamation builds upon Proclamation 10949 by doing the following:

• The prohibition on entry of foreign nationals from the following original twelve countries will continue: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
• Added to that list of countries from which entry is prohibited are Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Syria (Laos and Sierra Leone were elevated from the “partial ban” list set forth in Proclamation 10949). Also fully prohibited from entering the United States are “individuals using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority (PA).”
• Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela remain subject to partial restrictions on entry, while the suspension of entry into the United States of nationals of Turkmenistan on certain nonimmigrant visas has been lifted (though “the entry into the United States of nationals of Turkmenistan as immigrants remains suspended.”)
• Partial restrictions on entry of nationals from the following fifteen countries have also been added: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Exceptions to coverage of the proclamation include lawful permanent residents of the United States, certain foreign athletes, as well as “national interest” determinations made by the attorney general, secretary of state, or secretary of homeland security. The proclamation becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 1, 2026.

H-1B Proclamation Update. The following are updates regarding legal challenges to President Trump’s September 19, 2025, proclamation, “Restriction On Entry Of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” on September 19, 2025:

• Hearing in U.S. Chamber of Commerce Case. Two private-sector lawsuits have been filed against the H-1B proclamation: one by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and another by a coalition of labor unions, nursing organizations, and religious organizations (Global Nurse Force et al. v. Trump). The Chamber’s lawsuit is on a faster track, as a hearing was held on December 19, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A decision in the case is expected in the coming weeks.
• States File Legal Challenge. In addition to the Chamber’s lawsuit and the Global Nurse Force lawsuit, twenty Democratic state attorneys general have also filed their legal challenge against the H-1B proclamation. This lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, advances similar legal arguments as those contained in the other two lawsuits, though obviously focuses its policy arguments on public sector employment, noting “state and local agencies and public-serving institutions like universities, schools, and hospitals have turned to H-1B workers to provide education, healthcare, and other services.”

House Lawmakers Examine Union Transparency Matters. On December 17, 2025, the House Education and Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing, titled, “Ensuring Union Leaders Represent Members, Not Agendas.” According to Subcommittee Chair Rick Allen’s (R-GA) opening statement, the hearing focused on ways to “strengthen the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) to better support union members who want to participate in governing their unions.” Witnesses and lawmakers discussed the following bills.

• The Union Members Right to Know Act (H.R. 6139). This bill would require a labor union to provide employees with copies of the union constitution, bylaws, and collective bargaining agreement, and make those documents available on its website. A similar, but not identical, bill with the same name has been introduced in the Senate.
• Protecting Union Representation and Elections Act (PURE Act) (H.R. 6136). This bill would amend the LMRDA to require that elections for union officials be conducted only via secret ballot voting by the members, rather than by a convention of delegates.
• Fair Access to Justice for Union Members Act (H.R. 6141). This bill would amend the LMRDA to eliminate the requirement that union members exhaust internal administrative procedures prior to instituting a legal challenge against their union.
• Ask the Union Members Act (H.R. 6142). This bill would require unions to conduct secret ballot votes to approve a collective bargaining agreement or authorize a strike.
• Endorsement Transparency Act (H.R. 6156). This bill would require unions, prior to endorsing a candidate for the office of President of the United States, to poll their members on the decision and disclose the results of that poll to the members.

These bills likely have little chance of becoming law, but they are indicative of how House Republicans view the current labor-management policy landscape.

It Does a (Legislative) Body Good. Things took a churn for the better this week in Congress, as the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025” (S. 222). The bill amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to allow public schools to serve “flavored and unflavored organic or nonorganic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free fluid milk and lactose-free fluid milk.” The current, udderly ridiculous, regulations permit schools to serve only low-fat or fat-free milk to students. Previously passed via unanimous consent in the Senate, its full cream ahead for the bill, which now finds its whey to President Trump’s desk.

This is the last Beltway Buzz of 2025. We will return on January 9, 2026.