President Obama Makes Recess Appointments to NLRB and EEOC

March 30, 2010

By: Peter A. Jones

On March 27, President Obama announced 15 recess appointees to administrative posts, including controversial Democratic nominee Craig Becker, along with union labor attorney Mark Pearce, as members of the National Labor Relations Board. The recess appointees, particularly Becker, were criticized by Republicans and business groups and praised by Democrats and labor leaders. Becker has been a controversial nominee due to some of his past academic writings and his current employment as in-house counsel at the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. Many fear that Becker and Pearce, along with current NLRB Chair Wilma Liebman, could effect significant labor law changes, either through the adjudication process with changes to significant case law or via administrative rule making. We have previously reported on some of the potential case law changes that may be in the offing.

The EEOC nominees given recess appointments were Jacqueline Berrien (Associate Director-Counsel of NAACP) to serve as EEOC Chair, Victoria Lipnic (Of Counsel to Seyforth Shaw) and Chai Feldblum (Georgetown University Law Center Professor) as EEOC Commissioners, and P. David Lopez as General Counsel (EEOC Trial Attorney).

The recess appointments will last until the end of 2011 Congressional session. Notwithstanding the recess appointments, the nominations will remain pending in the Senate for confirmation, according to the White House. Not included in the list of NLRB recess appointments was the third nominee to the agency – Republican Brian Hayes, a former management attorney and current Labor Policy Director for the Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.