U.S. President Donald Trump looks on while speaking to members of the media as he flies from Florida to Joint Base Andrews en route to Washington, aboard Air Force One, U.S., October 19, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
President Donald Trump is facing yet another bipartisan discharge petition that could see a Republican-controlled House rebuke him.
On Monday, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) announced he has gathered enough signatures to force a vote in the House on the Protect America's Workforce Act, a bill that would overturn Trump's executive order effectively abolishing most federal government workers' unions.
That order invoked a rarely-used provision in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to wipe out collective bargaining rights for thousands of people. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate by all Democrats and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
"It was the single biggest act of union-busting in American history," wrote Golden on X. "I’m proud of the bipartisan coalition I’ve built to right this wrong — including the five Republicans who signed my discharge petition to force this vote. Solidarity forever. Now let’s finish the job."
This is the second major discharge petition to pass with bipartisan support in defiance of Trump; the first was to compel the release of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files. Trump, realizing he didn't have the votes to stop it, gave the GOP his blessing to vote on it to save face, and that vote is set to take place this week.
According to Politico, the Protect America's Workforce Act already had the signatures in theory to force a vote last week, but House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reportedly asked newly sworn-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) to hold off on signing it so that Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a vulnerable swing-district Republican Democrats are targeting next year, would not be the final deciding signature and get a public relations win for it.
Grijalva's swearing in had itself been delayed for weeks, with some observers accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of stalling it to try to stop the discharge petition on Epstein. He denies this as a motive and insists it was simply because of the federal government shutdown.
Golden, a moderate to conservative Democrat who holds a seat that voted for Trump three times, recently announced he would be retiring from Congress, citing threats to his family's safety.