Today, Representative Trey Gowdy (SC-04) released the following statement in response to President Obama’s recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
“For someone who habitually brags about being a constitutional law scholar, it is appalling how little regard President Obama has for the document. Apparently unconvinced the republic could stay knitted together long enough for the Senate to execute its constitutional responsibility of “Advise and Consent”, the President – ignoring legal precedent, the fact that the Senate has been in pro forma session, his administration’s previous legal analysis of what constitutes a “recess” and his own promises during the campaign – appointed 3 members to the increasingly hyper-partisan NLRB and a director of the nascent (and hopefully terminal) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
“I realize constitutional republics are sometimes deliberate. I realize that in constitutional republics the Chief Executive does not always get what he/she wants precisely when he/she wants it. I also realize ours is into the 3rd century. We flirted with having a King and then thought better of it.”
“It is my hope these unprecedented extra-constitutional actions will be challenged in court. Turning the NLRB into a taxpayer funded law firm for big Labor and creating a CFPB answerable to no one are separate issues. Ignoring the foundational document of this country to buttress one’s re-election prospects is an abomination.”
Rep. Gowdy sponsored H.R. 2926, the National Labor Relations Reorganization Act of 2011 and also co-sponsored H.R. 2587, the Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act, and H.R. 3094, the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act.
