Friday, March 26, 2010

Republicans warn Obama against bypassing Senate

Republicans warn Obama against bypassing Senate; CNN

All 41 Republican senators have signed a letter warning President Barack Obama not to appoint a controversial nominee to a federal agency overseeing relations between unions and employers.

Led by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP senators urged the president against putting union lawyer Craig Becker on the National Labor Relations Board during Congress' upcoming Easter break.

"We are writing to urge you not to overturn the bipartisan vote against the nomination of Craig Becker to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) through a recess appointment," the senators state in the letter. "To do so would bypass the advice and consent traditions of the Senate."

Senate Republicans, along with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Arkansas, effectively blocked Becker's nomination to the NLRB on February 9.

Becker previously served as a lawyer for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO.

The GOP senators cast Becker as a radical whose past writings, their letter states, "clearly indicate that he would use his position on the NLRB to institute far-reaching changes in labor law."

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