Using Recess Appointment, Obama Names Cordray as CFPB Head

President Barack Obama announced four recess appointments 01/04/12, including Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The move was a challenge Senate Republicans who last month blocked a vote on Cordray's bid and have argued against the president's legal authority to make such appointments. Cordray was Obama's pick to lead the agency in July. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs voted to approve the nomination in October, but he faced stiff resistance from Senate Republicans, who had vowed to block the confirmation of any director back in May. Last month, the Senate voted 53 to 45 to block a vote on his confirmation from proceeding. Cordray – currently the agency's head of enforcement – is the former Ohio attorney general, and spent most of his career in the state. Obama spoke today at a high school outside Cleveland. “I nominated Richard for this job last summer. And yet, for almost half a year, Republicans in the Senate have blocked his confirmation … The only reason Republicans in the Senate have blocked Richard is because they don’t agree with the law setting up the consumer watchdog. They want to weaken it,” Obama said in his prepared remarks. The White House also announced three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board later in the afternoon. The appointees are Sharon Block, the deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor; Terence Flynn, who is currently detailed to serve as chief counsel to board member Brian Hayes; and Richard Griffin, the general counsel for International Union of Operating Engineers. more at link

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• Federal appeals court rules Obama's recess appointments to labor board are unconstitutional. If the decision stands, it would invalidate hundreds of board decisions. It would also leave the five member board with just one validly appointed member, effectively shutting it down. The ruling also throws in question Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/federal-appeals-court-rules-obama-recess-appointments-to-labor-board-are-unconstitutional/2013/01/25/0df0fa14-6707-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html

• Maybe this is an opportunity to rework this, to have even more teeth,

• Fuckity fuck. I like Cordray, and I don't know how Obama can get him approved. P.S. Law students will end up studying this matter in their Constitutional Law classes.

• THIS is why he didn't nominate Elizabeth Warren ... not to "throw her under the bus" as liberals kept claiming ... but her talent would be wasted waiting to be voted in by Republicans which would never happen. He strategically gave her positions that didn't require congressional approval (overseeing TARP & CFPB before a head was nominated) And now she stole a Republican senate seat, is securely in a 6 year term ... sitting on the Banking Committee.

• Funny how they had no problems with recess appointments made by Bush

• Like it's hard for a Dem to win a U.S. Senate seat in Mass during a presidential election, r4. Scott Brown needed a miracle to hold that seat.

• True R5, this is political bullshit.

• Was the Senate in actual recess when Bush made his appointments? That is the question! If it was, then it's constitutional.