July 15, 2013 | NLRB | What happens if an entire 80-year-old agency of the United States government with some 1700 employees effectively ceases functioning, even as it continues to exist on paper and occupy a line on the federal budget? That is the question at the heart of the bitter dispute in the Senate over the Republican minority's increasingly boundless use of the filibuster to block President Barack Obama's executive branch nominees, [including three to the National Labor Relations Board]…From the start of the Obama administration, Republicans seized on the NLRB as a likely driver of his radical agenda…As the paranoia about the agency ratcheted up, Senate Republicans simply stopped confirming Obama's nominees to the board, even though he held to the custom of naming two members from the minority party. Full story here. Related: Here's 10 real-life stories from workers whose jobs and lives are negatively impacted by the obstruction to a functioning NLRB.