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United States News Title: Obama to Name Richard Cordray as Consumer Chief in Defiance of Republicans President Barack Obama will install Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a recess appointment today, testing the limits of his executive authority to fill the post without Senate approval, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said. Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, accompanied Obama on Air Force One for a trip to the state where the president plans to make the announcement. Republicans used procedural moves to block Cordray’s confirmation by the Senate last month. Obama, who is making confrontation with congressional Republicans a part of his re- election strategy, has said filling the consumer bureau post is critical to protecting middle-income Americans from “unscrupulous” lenders. The president’s decision drew quick criticism from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who said in a statement that Obama “arrogantly circumvented” the American people and warned the action would threaten future confirmation of nominees. “This recess appointment represents a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the president to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” McConnell, of Kentucky, said in a statement. “Breaking from this precedent lands this appointee in uncertain legal territory, threatens the confirmation process and fundamentally endangers the Congress’s role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch,” he said. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, called the appointment an “extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab” by the president. The appointment may set up an election-year court fight between the White House and Congress. The Constitution gives a president the power to make appointments when the U.S. Senate is in recess. To keep Obama from appointing officials after Congress started a holiday break last month, congressional Republicans refused to adopt a resolution to formally adjourn and senators have appeared every three days for a brief pro forma session. The Congressional Research Service, in a 2001 memo, said congressional practice and Justice Department opinions have backed the position that the Senate should be out of session for more than three days before the president can make a so-called recess appointment. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson praised the decision. “With Richard Cordray leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Americans will finally get the consumer protections they deserve,” the South Dakota Democrat said in a statement. “It’s disappointing that Senate Republicans denied him an up-or-down vote, especially when it’s clear he had the support of a majority of the Senate.” Enough questions surround the way congressional recesses work to give the Obama administration some grounds to attempt a legal fight, said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “The fact is that there is significant ambiguity about how you define a recess that they could challenge it,” Ornstein said. Obama nominated Cordray to be the bureau’s first director in July, almost one year after enactment of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law that created the agency. Obama passed over Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard University professor who set up the bureau and is running for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. Even before Cordray received the nod, the bureau became ensnared in a partisan fight over demands by Senate Republicans for changes in the agency’s structure and funding. In May, 44 Republicans -- a 45th later joined them -- said they wouldn’t confirm a director without the changes, and on Dec. 8 they blocked the nomination on a procedural vote. Without a director in place, the consumer bureau can’t supervise and regulate non-bank financial firms, such as mortgage originators and payday lenders. On July 21, it acquired the authority to supervise and regulate deposit-taking banks. A recess appointment would heighten a clash between Obama and Congress, including December’s showdown over a two-month extension of a payroll tax (FFSTEMPL) cut for workers. Obama will need Congress to pass a full-year extension, which is “essentially the last must-do item of business on the president’s congressional agenda” in 2012, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Dec. 31. The president also may need Congress’s cooperation on pending nominations to the Federal Reserve Board and judgeships and on his proposals in a jobs bill. The Senate is scheduled to stay symbolically open for business until lawmakers resume work on Jan. 23.
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