Further Exclusions From the Federal Labor- Management Relations Program
This Executive Order (EO 14343) amends the federal list of agencies and units that are excluded from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program (the system created under Chapter 71 of Title 5, which governs federal collective bargaining and union representation). The President determines that the units named in the order have primary intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national‑security functions and that applying Chapter 71’s procedures to them would be inconsistent with national security. The order adds specific units (including parts of the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Reclamation hydropower units, NASA, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media) to the exclusion list in Executive Order 12171, and it extends a short deadline for certain Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs actions tied to a prior executive order. The practical effect is to remove these specified units from standard federal labor-management rules (reducing or eliminating collective‑bargaining rights and related procedures in those units), on national‑security grounds. Implementation is subject to applicable law and funding limits, and the order includes standard severability and non‑enforceability clauses.
Key Points
- 1The order formally determines that the agencies and subdivisions listed perform primarily intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national‑security work and that Chapter 71 (the federal labor‑management statute) cannot be applied to them consistent with national security requirements.
- 2It amends Executive Order 12171 (the existing exclusions list) by:
- 3- Adding Bureau of Reclamation units whose primary responsibility is operating, managing, or maintaining hydropower facilities.
- 4- Revising the Commerce exclusions to explicitly include the International Trade Administration; the Office of the Commissioner for Patents and its subordinate Patent and Trademark Office units; and two NOAA subdivisions — the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
- 5- Adding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to the exclusions.
- 6Section 3 allows orders issued by the Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs under section 4 of Executive Order 14251 (March 27, 2025) to take full effect if issued within 15 days of this EO, despite an otherwise applicable deadline limitation in EO 14251.
- 7The order contains a severability clause: if part is found invalid, the rest remains effective.
- 8General provisions clarify that the EO does not alter statutory authorities of agencies or OMB functions, must be implemented consistent with law and appropriations, and does not create new private legal rights enforceable in court.