The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NOMINATIONS OF GWYNNE A. WILCOX AND DAVID M. PROUTY” mentioning Lisa Murkowski was published in the Senate section on page S5117 on July 28.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NOMINATIONS OF GWYNNE A. WILCOX AND DAVID M. PROUTY
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, one final matter, by the end of today, the Senate will confirm two nominees on the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board: Gwynne Wilcox and David Prouty. Both are champions for working Americans.
Ms. Wilcox, who hails from my home State of New York--I am proud to say--has spent her career representing workers and unions seeking to exercise their rights to organize. She is one of the Nation's leading experts on labor law, and if confirmed, she would make history as the first African-American woman to ever serve on the NLRB.
Like Ms. Wilcox, David Prouty has also spent a lifetime defending the rights of organized labor across the country, recently serving as the general counsel of the SEIU, one the Nation's largest unions.
Over the course of American history, the labor movement has been the single most powerful force in lifting Americans out of poverty and into the middle class. It was by coming to this country and joining a union that my grandfather entered the middle class and passed on even more opportunity to his children and then to me and my brother and sister.
So it is no mistake that as labor union participation has declined over the past few decades, wages have stalled as well, and folks are finding it harder and harder to stay in the middle class.
If we are going to strengthen the backbone of the middle class, we need to reinvigorate the labor movement and protect the rights of workers everywhere to organize and bargain collectively for their wages. Appointing these two labor champions to the NLRB is a great way to start.
And, to the American people, the confirmation today of these two NLRB labor champions is a direct result of having a Democratic majority in the Senate versus having a Republican majority.
Under Leader McConnell and Republicans, the NLRB, which is typically divided between two parties, had only Republican appointees for the first time in its 85-year history. None of them had any experience in labor policy. They are almost atavistically against working people and helped management--the big bosses--to prevent people from organizing and making it harder to stay organized if you were. It was awful, and it is one of the reasons that middle-class incomes have not accelerated in the last 2 decades.
In fact, the Republicans were so intent on not having the NLRB defend the rights of working people that under Leader McConnell a Democratic seat on the NLRB was held vacant for nearly 3 years. If the American people want to know which side each party is on, just look at the NLRB: Democrats appointing pro-labor people who fight for higher salaries, higher pensions, higher health benefits; Republicans making sure the NLRB doesn't function and allowing the big bosses to take a dominant role in negotiations with their workers.
Even during the years when President Trump was in the White House and Republicans had a majority on the NLRB, Leader McConnell blocked Democrats from appointing a minority member to the Board. They didn't want a minority member on the Board even though they would have the majority, the Republicans. It is not a stretch to say if Democrats had not taken the majority in January, these important posts to the NLRB might never have been filled.
So, look, Senate Democrats are working with the Biden Administration to make sure the National Labor Relations Board does what it is intended to do: stand up for working Americans; make sure they have a much better chance of getting better wages, better benefits, better pensions. I look forward to confirming these two outstanding nominees later today.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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