Hot over the unresolved and lingering so-called recess appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) when the Senate was not in recess, Sen. Lamar Alexander Rep. Phil Roe – both from Tennessee – teamed up on a scathing USA Today op-ed blasting the president for constitutional misconduct. Sen. Alexander is ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Rep. Roe is chairman of the House subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
On January 4, 2012, President Obama made three so-called recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) while the Senate was not in recess. These appointments were unprecedented—no other president has made recess appointments while the Senate was in session.
A year later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously held that the president’s appointments violated the Constitution.
The Senate decides when it is in session – not the president.
Were it otherwise, there would be no point to the Senate’s constitutional “advice and consent” power at all, and the Senate could return from lunch one day to find there’s a new Supreme Court justice.
The White House claims these appointments were within the president’s power, but the record shows Democrats have opposed such tactics. In 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that over the Thanksgiving holiday, he would be “keeping the Senate in pro forma [session] to prevent recess appointments” that could have been made by President Bush – who, by the way, respected Reid’s move and didn’t make appointments.
Read more of this op-ed here.
This entry was posted in Big Labor Bailout, Congress, NLRB, Politics, Unions and tagged Barack Obama, Big Labor, Constitution, constitutional violation, health education labor and pensions, HELP Committee, lamar alexander, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, obama white house, Phil Roe, President Obama, recess appointments, Senate. Bookmark the permalink.