Amid talk of a boycott by other Republicans on the committee, the panel’s top GOP member, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he would attend. He left it up to each senator to decide whether to attend, and four others did — typical attendance for such a hearing.
BY JIM PUZZANGHERA | LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON — Republican senators warned the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they believed his recess appointment was invalid and that new agency rules would be challenged in court, leaving businesses uncertain about what rules to follow.
Republicans were so upset with President Barack Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray last month that one boycotted the director’s Senate Banking Committee appearance Tuesday and another promised never to work with the president on pending nominations that need the Senate’s approval.
The GOP had been blocking confirmation votes on any nominee to direct the agency until its powers were limited and had prevented the Senate from formally going into recess for more than three days to try to prevent a recess appointment.
Democrats defended Obama’s decision to break with tradition and appoint Cordray during a short Senate recess after Senate Republicans had blocked a vote on him in December.
“I can’t imagine how anybody could maintain under the circumstances that your appointment and your service is valid,” Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., told Cordray at Tuesday’s hearing. “And I can’t imagine, then … how the actions you are taking will be upheld, and I think that’s a very, very serious consequence for our nation.”
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said: “There’s no question there’s going to be constitutional challenges” to Cordray’s appointment.
Cordray said he and his staff have discussed the potential for legal challenges to the appointment by businesses affected by any new rules. But Cordray said it wasn’t clear whether those challenges would succeed and that he believed the appointment was valid.
“I have been appointed as director,” Cordray said. “There may be issues about that … but I now have legal obligations I’m supposed to carry out for this bureau. I’m going to do that.”
Many congressional Republicans have said Obama abused his constitutional powers by appointing Cordray when the Senate was technically still in session. Obama, backed by the Justice Department, said the Senate’s pro forma sessions were designed simply to block him from making recess appointments.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has said he would stop working with the Obama on the approval of other nominees until the president rescinds the recess appointments of Cordray and three people to the National Labor Relations Board.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was so upset about Cordray’s appointment that he boycotted Tuesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing. “His purported recess appointment does not comply with the Constitution and is, in fact, a nullity,” he said last week. He said he would skip the hearing to avoid giving “an appearance of legitimacy” to the appointment.
Amid talk of a boycott by other Republicans on the committee, the panel’s top GOP member, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he would attend. He left it up to each senator to decide whether to attend, and four others did — typical attendance for such a hearing.