Senate Republicans late Thursday declared victory in their effort to use a procedural maneuver to prevent the president from making any recess appointments during the Memorial Day holiday.
For the mortgage and banking industries that means the White House is unlikely to name Treasury official Elizabeth Warren to head the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the next few days.
According to combined press reports, the Senate will not go on a formal recess but instead will technically stay in session, making it unlikely that President Obama would use his constitutional power to make appointments while the Senate is on break.
Certain conservative Republicans had urged the House to block the Senate from adjourning as a way to prevent the president from tapping Warren, a former Harvard law professor, to head the CFPB, an agency Republicans would like to kill or neuter.
"The House will not be sending an adjournment resolution to the Senate, we will remain in pro forma session, and no controversial nominees will be allowed to circumvent the confirmation process during the break," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., one of the 20 Republicans who urged the House to block the Senate from going on recess.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., confirmed that the Senate has not formally let out. "We weren't anticipating recess appointments, but we're in pro forma because the Republicans are blocking adjournment," said the spokesman.
