GOP OBSTRUCTIONISM BLOCKS GREEN APPOINTMENT AND PUTS LABOR LAWS IN LIMBO

Monroe County
DA Mike Green

Washington, D.C.-- Senate Republicans are taking steps to try to block President Barack Obama from using his power to make appointments while lawmakers are away for the holidays. This is what you get when you elect the most extreme ring wing radicals Congress has ever seen. However, the president could hold a trump card or two-- we'll see how he plays his hand.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the first shot on Saturday, saying he would allow Senate votes on Obama nominees only if the president dropped the idea of using his recess appointment powers.

Republicans also moved to keep the Senate technically in session through late January, when senators plan to return to Washington, the same tactic they used during a break in May. By keeping the session open, the president can't make recess appointments. The main target has been former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, the president's pick to head the new--and contentious--Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In local news, Monroe County District Attorney Michael Green will not be renominated for a Rochester vacancy on the federal court, White House spokesman Brandon Lepow said Sunday.

The Senate returned Green's nomination to the White House on Saturday and left Washington for a month-long break.

The decision means President Barack Obama will have to find another candidate to fill the nearly 3-year-old vacancy in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

The vacancy dates back to March 2009, when Rochester-based U.S. District Judge David Larimer turned 65 and declared himself as having "senior status."

Once Obama names a new nominee, it will set in motion a process that could take months as the new candidate's background is investigated by the FBI and the Senate Judiciary Committee then schedules a confirmation hearing.

Green was nominated by Obama in January of 2011, but it was not until May that the committee held his confirmation hearing. The committee approved his nomination in a mid-June voice vote, but Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah voted against his nomination.

Green could not be reached for comment. In a statement to the press on Sunday, New York Senator Chuck Schumer directed his aim at Republican obstructionism and "politics" for blocking the Green appointment.

Labor laws in limbo

Unless something changes in Washington, American workers will, on New Year’s Day, effectively lose their right to be represented by a union. Two of the five seats on the National Labor Relations Board are vacant. And on Dec. 31, the term of Craig Becker, a labor lawyer whom President Obama named to the board last year through a recess appointment, will expire.
 
Without a quorum, the Supreme Court ruled last year, the board cannot decide cases. What would this mean? Workers illegally fired for union organizing won’t be reinstated with back pay. Employers will be able to get away with interfering with union elections. Perhaps most important, employers won’t have to recognize unions despite a majority vote by workers. Without the board to enforce labor law, most companies will not voluntarily deal with unions.