Obama issues 15 recess appointments
Updated 4:29 p.m. ET
President Obama issued 15 recess appointments on Saturday, including two picks for the deadlocked National Labor Relations Board. One of the nominees, Craig Becker, is strongly opposed by Republicans.
By law Obama can install nominees without Senate confirmation during a Congressional recess. The two-week Congressional Easter break began on Friday. But the picks can only serve through the end of the next Congressional session, meaning the 15 appointed on Saturday will serve through the end of 2011 unless they earn Senate confirmation.
In a statement Obama said the Senate has a responsibility to give up or down votes to his 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," adding later that, "I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.”
The White House said that 217 of Obama's nominees still await Senate confirmation, including 34 nominees that have waited for more than six months. By comparison George W. Bush also had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, the White House said. Bush made at least 171 recess appointments during his presidency while Bill Clinton made 139, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Obama's decision installs Becker and Democratic union lawyer Mark Pearce at NLRB, a five-member body that has operated with only two members for more than two years. The Democrat and Republican on the board have decided more than 580 cases, but the Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday to determine whether those decisions are valid.
Senate Republicans warned Obama on Thursday against appointing Becker by recess appointment, arguing his legal work for the Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO suggests he would unfairly represent the interest of labor unions.
Reaction to Becker's appointment was almost immediate.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Obama's decision to appoint Becker is "clear payback by the administration to organized labor."
"Time and again questions have been raised over Mr. Becker's ability to serve in an honest and impartial manner on the NLRB, yet this administration chose to ignore the questions and concerns and instead forced their will on the American people," McCain said in a statement.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted that Becker was the first NLRB pick it had opposed since 1993.
"The business community should be on red alert for radical changes that could significantly impair the ability of America’s job creators to compete," the Chamber said in a statement.
But Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of the pro-labor American Rights at Work, called Obama's decision, "long overdue," saying American workers "have needed a fully functioning NLRB to mediate their claims for better wages, benefits and other rights for almost two years."
Saturday's appointments also include Alan D. Bersin to serve as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Rafael Borras to serve as the third-ranking official at the Homeland Security Department and two officials each at the departments of Commerce and Treasury and Office of U.S. Trade Representative. Those picks have waited months for a full Senate vote. The president also named four members to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, another long-deadlocked panel.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/03/obama_issues_15_recess_appoint.html

