As labor uprisings heat up and spread across the country, a group of House Democrats is calling for an increase in budget for the federal labor board, which has been starved of the funding it needs to address the current upswing in labor activity.

The group of 149 Democrats, led by Rep. Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey), sent a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday, asking for a roughly 34 percent boost to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) budget for fiscal year 2023 and requesting a budget of $368 million at minimum. The funding should be specifically directed toward addressing the “staffing crisis” at the board’s regional offices, they said.

The lawmakers also asked for the removal of an appropriations rider that bars the NLRB from conducting union elections with an electronic voting system, which the letter writers called an “antiquated prohibition.” Currently, […]