Vitter, DeMint Urge House to Block Controversial Recess Appointments

Vitter, DeMint Urge House to Block Controversial Recess Appointments
Wednesday, May 25, 2011

(Washington, D.C) – U.S. Sen., and 18 other senators today sent a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner asking him not to pass the Senate’s adjournment resolution in order to block recess appointments by the Obama Administration. Specifically, the senators have concerns with the nominations of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Craig Becker to head the National Labor Relations Board.

“Obama has a poor track record of appointing some really controversial characters during congressional breaks. Elizabeth Warren and Craig Becker rank up there among those I’ve had the greatest concerns about,” said Vitter.

"The Republican House has stopped President Obama's ability to ram through his reckless liberal bills through Congress. Now the president is trying to stack agencies with liberal ideologues to ram through his agenda by regulation. Unelected and unconfirmed partisans at the NLRB, FCC, EPA and other agencies are destroying jobs and hurting our economy. Republicans need to fight back and stop recess appointment of controversial nominees that would never be confirmed in the proper process," DeMint said.

In the past President Obama has recess appointed controversial nominations like Donald Berwick at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, James Cole at the Department of Justice and Phillip Coyle at the Department of Commerce.

The senators who signed the letter are: Vitter, DeMint, Kelly Ayotte (NH), John Barrasso (WY), Dan Coats (IN), Tom Coburn (OK), John Cornyn (TX), Mike Crapo (ID), Dean Heller (NV), Jim Inhofe (OK), Johnny Isakson (GA), Ron Johnson (WI) Mark Kirk (IL), Jim Risch (ID), Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), John Thune (SD), Pat Toomey (PA) and Roger Wicker (MS).

The text of the letter is below

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