WASHINGTON – Today, the International Franchise Association (IFA) issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate rejected the nomination of Lauren McFerran, chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), for a third five-year term in a bipartisan 49-50 vote.

“We applaud the U.S. Senate for standing up for franchising and recognizing that Chairman McFerran’s indefensible tenure at the NLRB must end,” said Michael Layman, IFA Chief Advocacy Officer. “Today’s vote was a win for Main Street and America’s 800,000 franchise businesses that provide untold jobs and economic opportunities. IFA looks forward to working with the Trump Administration on not only restoring common sense and a pro-worker perspective at the NLRB, but also a clear and permanent definition of joint employer that will preserve the franchise model for generations to come.”

In March 2024, an IFA-led lawsuit defeated McFerran’s joint employer rule, which when previously implemented from 2015-2020, cost franchises $33.3 billion per year, eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs, and increased lawsuits by 93 percent.

This is the third nomination with a record of support for policies against franchising to fail during the Biden Administration. IFA advocacy led to the rejection of the nomination of Julie Su to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor and franchising opponent David Weil, whose nomination to serve as Administrator of the Department’s Wage and Hour Division failed on the Senate floor in March of 2022.

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