WASHINGTON – Showing he won’t take the Senate GOP “no’s” for an answer, Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 26 renominated former top union attorney Craig Becker as a member of the National Labor Relations Board through 2014. And he renominated former Communications Workers officer Bill Boarman as Public Printer.
Becker and Boarman now serve in those posts under “recess appointments,” which end at the close of the congressional session. A GOP filibuster in the last Congress prevented a vote on the nomination of Becker, a Chicagoan and former counsel to the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees.
The Republicans objected to Becker’s union ties and some of his academic writings. No sooner did Obama re-nominate Becker than Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyom., top Republican on the Senate Labor Committee, said he would oppose Becker again.
GOP obstructionism prevented the Senate from considering Boarman, former head of CWA’s Printing, Publications and Media Workers sector, for the permanent job of running the biggest publishing firm – the Government Printing Office – in the U.S.
Obama also renominated Paul Tiao, an assistant U.S. attorney for Maryland now on detail to the FBI, as inspector general for the Labor Department. Tiao’s nomination died when the last Congress adjourned.
Image courtesy White House
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