houston was involved in several important votes during his tenure on the nrlb. almost immediately after joining the board, he allied with chairman millis in voting to overturn a previous decision of the nlrb and deny plant foremen the right to join unions (as they were supervisors and not employees). but just two years later, he and millis allied again to overturn their 1943 decision. houston and new nlrb chairman paul m. herzog again combined in 1946 to uphold the 1945 decision. in 1945, he again allied with millis to force the resignation of charles t. douds, the board's controversial and liberal northeast regional director. in 1947, he was embroiled along with the board in a major dispute over the taft-hartley act. the act had become law over president truman's veto in the summer of 1947, and among its many provisions was a requirement that all elected union leaders file an affidavit with the nlrb asserting that they were not now and never had been a member of the communist party usa and that they disavowed any future attempt to overthrow the united states government by force. the question before the nlrb was whether this applied to union leaders who were elected not to sit on the executive board of their home union but to serve on the board of directors of some other federation, organization, or body. the nlrb's general counsel ruled that members of the boards of directors of the american federation of labor and congress of industrial organizations must sign these oaths. this was a concern, since many of these individuals had been communists in their youth (although they were no longer). since they did not hold elected positions on their home unions, they had escaped the taft-hartley act's anti-communist oath provisions, but the general counsel's ruling put their service in jeopardy. houston, along with three other members of the nlrb overruled the general counsel in a series of votes in september and october 1947.