Labor & Employment Law

Obama Uses Recess Appointments for NLRB and Other Blocked Nominations

By Mike Hall

President Obama announced on Saturday he will use recess appointments to fill 15 important positions that Republican senators have blocked for an average of 214 days. Two of those appointments are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Says Obama:

The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis. Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate.

Becker and Pearce, two highly qualified and respected labor lawyers, were nominated in July and received Senate Judiciary approval, but Senate Republicans blocked final approval.

Last week, activists made thousands of calls to the White House asking the president to overcome the Republican obstruction in the Senate with recess appointments. Also, in an op-ed last week in The Hill, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urged Obama to use recess appointments to put the two on the board, which has been operating with just two members since 2008.

America’s working women and men have been waiting for National Labor Relations Board appointments for too long.

Following the announcement, Republicans loudly complained about Obama’s use of the recess appointments. But as the White House statement points out:

President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, but he was not facing the same level of obstruction. At this time in 2002, President Bush had only 5 nominees pending on the floor. By contrast, President Obama has 77 nominees currently pending on the floor.

Other appointments include four positions on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and posts at the departments of Homeland Security and Treasury.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).