Client Alert
President Obama Stacks NLRB With Pro-Labor Recess Appointments
March 29, 2010
John F. Wymer, III and Todd C. Duffield
President Obama announced this weekend that he will make 15 recess appointments to various administrative positions during the Senates upcoming Easter recess, including two appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. According to the White House press release, Obama will appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, both Democrats and career union labor lawyers, to fill two of the three vacancies on the Board. Obama previously nominated both Becker and Pearce, along with Brian Hayes a Republican. The nominations passed the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, mainly on party lines, but Becker was the subject of a filibuster which the Senate leadership was unable to terminate with a cloture vote. Because President Obama nominated them as a package deal, all three nominations have been deferred.