With Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts pushing to be sworn in as soon as possible, instead of next week as Democrats had planned, there is new pressure on the party to push through the president's labor-friendly nominees.

Brown is set to become the chamber's 41st Republican, which will give the party enough votes to block controversial nominees like Patricia Smith, who cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday with exactly 60 Democratic votes and is headed to become the Labor Department's next top lawyer.

Republican senators voted against confirming Smith, a former commissioner of the New York state labor department who developed a pro-union program aimed at improving labor-law compliance.

"The concern is that she wouldn't ban an impartial advocate in her position of solicitor and would put a heavy thumb on the scale in favor of the unions," said James Sherk a labor policy scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Republican senators accused Smith of giving conflicting testimony to a Senate panel earlier this year, and had sent a letter to President Obama asking to withdraw his nominee, saying Smith had intentionally misled the panel about her intent to expand the pro-union
program.

Republicans are also targeting Craig Becker, Obama's pick to fill one of three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board and someone who the GOP fears will be able to implement pro-union changes that were not other achievable through "card check" legislation.

The labor unions, who poured significant amounts of money and volunteers into getting Obama elected, had anticipated last year that Congress would quickly pass card check, formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill would have made it much easier for employees to form unions and helped them increase their dwindling numbers. But support for the bill has declined steadily since last year and it now lacks the votes needed for passage.

Republicans and pro-business groups fear Becker could push implementation of card check provisions in his role on the NLRB.

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In addition to AGC, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers also oppose Becker's nomination.