It is indefensible that nearly 70 nominees for positions in the Obama administration are languishing in the Senate, delayed by politics.
Nominees deserve their chance to be judged on their merits with up or down votes. We urge senators to allow nominees — even those with controversial views — to clear procedural hurdles and be voted upon.
It’s that simple.
And to be clear, we made that same argument when President George W. Bush struggled to get up or down votes on his proposed appointments.
President Obama this week raised the possibility of employing recess appointments to get some candidates in place, an imminent threat since Congress goes on break for Presidents’ Day next week. A constitutional provision allows the president to put nominees in place during times when Congress is recessed, without a confirmation vote by the Senate.
We look askance at recess appointments, and think nominees ought to be able to pass muster in the Senate. But we also believe that petty politics are at work in blocking nominees from an up or down vote.
Until recently, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., had imposed a blanket hold on the votes of Obama’s nominees over a completely unrelated concern. Shelby is trying to draw attention to changes he’d like to see in the bidding process for an air-to-air refueling tanker, a contract with implications for jobs in Alabama. In addition, Shelby wants to see an FBI counter-terrorism lab built in Alabama.
So for that, he held up Obama’s appointments. That’s unacceptable.
While the senator has dropped most of those holds, he told Politico he is willing to resurrect his efforts if he doesn’t get his way.
One of Obama’s nominees who has drawn particularly strident criticism is Craig Becker, a candidate for the National Labor Relations Board. The nomination of Becker, who served as legal counsel to the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, has raised questions about whether the five-member board would tilt too far in favor of labor interests. We share those concerns, but would like to hear him speak to whether he’d use his position to ease union organizing in the workplace.
He, too, deserves an up or down vote in the Senate. Both Colorado senators supported an unsuccessful effort this week to push his nomination to the floor.
Putting nominees before the Senate gives citizens a chance to see the type of person a president wants to put in his administration and it allows them to know what their senators think of the nominee.
Obama’s nominees deserve a vote, not recess appointments. The president deserves the chance to govern, and to be judged accordingly.
