ABSTRACT
In 1977, a bill to better enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) sailed quickly through the House of Representatives. Facing a Senate filibuster, its proponents weakened the proposal—making it, according to historian Jefferson Cowie, “lean, moderate, and basically unchallenging to the corporate order.” Even in its attenuated state, however, the bill would have curbed the most flagrant violations of private-sector workers’ rights. Though this version reached the precipice of the supermajority necessary to invoke cloture, it ultimately fell two votes short.