by Mark Adams
At first glance, nothing significant came out of Louisiana’s midterm elections. There were no Tea Party candidates to create excitement. Republicans and Democrats each lost a U.S. House seat and won a seat they hadn’t controlled, so we didn’t contribute to the change of control in the House. However, the Republican takeover of the House and the Democrats’ loss of their super-majority in the U.S. Senate will have a significant impact on the Democrats’ legislative agenda. As President Barack Obama said Tuesday morning, “My whole agenda is at risk.”
I predicted from the beginning that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would not survive a Republican filibuster even with a Democrat super-majority. After today, EFCA, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and any compromise measures are dead and buried; probably along with the rest of the administration’s labor and employment agenda.
That doesn’t mean, however, that employers can afford to breathe easy. Despite the election results, employers can expect increased regulatory oversight, more audits, and more aggressive audits — at least for the next two years — as the administration shifts its focus to accomplishing as much through regulation of what it can no longer accomplish legislatively.
Mark Adams is an editor of Louisiana Employment Law Letter and a partner with Jones Walker in New Orleans. He can be reached at (504) 582-8258.