McConnell accuses Democrats of creating ‘liberal supermajority’ ahead of NLRB confirmation vote

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell charged Senate Democrats with attempting to create a “liberal supermajority” on the National Labor Relations Board ahead of a vote to confirm the latest Democratic nominee.

Lawmakers are set to vote on Wednesday for Democratic nominee Gwynne Wilcox, who was tapped by President Biden in July for a second term on the labor board. Ms. Wilcox’s term expired at the end of August, leaving both a Democratic and Republican seat empty on the five-member board.

Mr. McConnell urged lawmakers to vote against the confirmation in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, saying that a Republican nominee has not been selected and put up for a vote at the same time as Ms. Wilcox.

“The Senate’s long-standing practice is to fill Democrat and Republican vacancies on important boards and commissions in tandem,” said Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “But instead of pairing Gwynne Wilcox, President Biden’s choice for a Democratic seat on the National Labor Relations Board, with a Republican counterpart, our colleagues would like to create an artificial liberal supermajority.”

Democrats have accused Mr. McConnell of slow-walking the selection of a Republican nominee in hopes of paralyzing the board’s work during a Democratic administration.

The NLRB is an independent federal agency that investigates and decides on cases of alleged unfair labor practices in the private sector. Ms. Wilcox’s possible confirmation could mean that Democrats have a three-to-one advantage on the board. The Republican seat has been vacant since December, when Trump administration appointee John Ring left the NLRB at the end of his term.

Mr. McConnell contended that Ms. Wilcox and other Democratic appointees on the board, with a two-seat majority in hand, would “run roughshod over American employers, stack the deck for Democrats’ Big Labor allies, and keep corrupt and failing unions on life support with a tangled mess of regulations.”

“The last thing our country needs is an emboldened partisan majority at the wheel of the NLRB,” Mr. McConnell said. “But unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’ll get if Democrats confirm Ms. Wilcox’s nomination by itself.”