On September 18, 2013, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hold an executive session at which it approved by a vote of 13 to 9 the nomination of Richard Griffin to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.  It also unanimously approved the nomination of Scott Dahl to be Inspector General of the Department of Labor.

The ranking member of the HELP Committee, Lamar Alexander (R-TN), stated in a press release that he expected Griffin to be confirmed by the full senate in an up or down vote.   Alexander also indicated he was looking for a long-term fix to take partisanship out of the NLRB.