Republicans are strongly considering using a rare procedural move to prevent President Obama from making a recess appointment to install a director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Forty-four GOP senators signed a letter last week vowing to block any nominee absent several significant changes to the bureau, a move that political analysts said all but guarantees the president will use his recess appointment powers. But Republican lawmakers are weighing tactics to make that option much less appealing or prevent it altogether by leveraging their power over other financial services nominees.
"If they were to go the recess-appointment route, I believe Senate Republican leadership would use every tool at their disposal and there would be a major response from Senate Republicans," a Republican Senate staffer said Friday. "It could result in costs to other nominees, and I think it would ultimately affect the legitimacy of whoever is recess-appointed to run the CFPB."
Republicans are attempting to box Obama in, preventing him confirming a permanent director to CFPB or allowing a temporary one to be put in place. Under the Dodd-Frank law, the CFPB is limited in what actions it can take unless it has a formal director. (While Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the agency, has been its de facto head since last year, she is an administration appointee and does not technically count as its director.)
Republicans are eyeing a tactic first employed by Democrats when President Bush was in power to hold "pro forma sessions" — short sessions during which no business is conducted — that prevents the Senate from being considered in "recess." Republicans used the tactic successfully last year after agreeing to confirm 54 of the president's nominees, but preventing him from making any recess appointments.
