Union Card Check: Senate Vote

The Employee Free Choice Act has never passed the Senate. The last time there was a vote was on June 26, 2007, when it got 51 votes, nine short of the 60 needed in the Senate to invoke cloture. In the 111th Congress, the bill was introduced by Senator Kennedy (D-Mass.) as S. 560. The bill had only 40 co-sponsors, all Democrats, and several Democratic senators including Blanch Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) publicly stated their opposition. While organized labor had previously held out hope of getting all 58 Democrats and both independents to support cloture, the election of Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) ended any chance of EFCA passing the Senate. The 2010 midterm election further slammed the door.