Specter: We’re close to EFCA compromise

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) said today that a compromise on card-check legislation is close.

The “prospects are pretty good,” Specter said, according to the AP, adding that legislators were “hard at work trying to find some way to find an answer.” Specter wouldn’t provide details on what a compromise might entail.

Last week, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the lead Senate sponsor of the bill, suggested a compromise was in the works.

“Compromises are going to be made,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told Bloomberg News. “It [the bill] probably won’t be card-check because too many people are opposed to it now.”

Possible components of a compromise bill include dropping the contentious “card check” portion of the act and instead holding a secret ballot election sooner after a union asks for it. Non-binding mediation could be substituted for EFCA’s binding government arbitration.

Specter, as the Senate’s 60th Democrat (if Franken is seated) will be a (the?) key vote on any deal modifying the legislation.