The Beltway Buzz - Friday, June 30, 2017

As if timed for the holiday weekend, we've had another week of fireworks here in Washington, D.C. Here is your Beltway Buzz.

A Fully Operational NLRB? On Tuesday evening, President Trump finally nominated labor attorney William J. Emanuel to one of two empty seats on the five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Last week, we reported that the president had nominated Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) counsel Marvin Kaplan to fill the other vacancy. The challenge now will be to see if the Senate can schedule the hearings and votes on these nominees before departing for August recess. We think this will be very difficult to do. After losing next week to the July Fourth recess, it is anticipated that much of the Senate's remaining time in July will be taken up by the healthcare debate. Moreover, Democratic senators are likely to look for ways to delay NLRB nominee confirmations in order to preserve the status quo at the Board for as