Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday announced fifteen appointments to various positions within strategically important departments of the administration, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, the Treasury, the National Labour Relations Board, the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

The fifteen nominees will fill critical administration posts that have been left vacant, including key positions on the economic team and on boards that have been left with vacancies for months, according to the White House.

Coming during a Congressional recess period as these appointments do, the President defended his actions saying, “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.”

Yet the appointments were strongly criticised by the opposition, much of their ire focused on the nomination of Craig Becker, currently associate general counsel with the Service Employees International Union. Mr. Becker was appointed to the National Labour Relations Board.

The Senate’s 41 Republicans were reported to have asked Mr. Obama last week to desist from making a recess appointment for Mr. Becker. Previously, two conservative Democratic senators had joined Republicans in a filibuster of Mr. Becker's appointment.

Republicans and business groups criticised Mr. Becker’s appointment. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Mr. Becker's prolific writings ... suggest a radical view of labour law that flies in the face of established precedent and case law and is far outside the mainstream.”

Further Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told CNN that the consideration of presidential nominees is an important role for the Senate, and said, “What it's called is checks and balances… And what the president has done here is throw fuel on the fire at a time when ... the debate about politics is a very angry debate to begin with.”

However President Obama argued that most of the staff whom he appointed were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still awaited a vote of the Senate. “At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government,” he said.

In a move to stave off criticism for making appointments outside the Congressional framework the White House explained that President Obama had a 217 nominees pending before the Senate, for an average of 101 days each, including 34 nominees pending for more than six months.

Further the White House clarified that former President George W. Bush made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, “but he was not facing the same level of obstruction.”

Labels: Barack Obama, Craig Becker, recess appointments