Employer Representative Talks Illegal Recess Appointments on The Hill

FEBRUARY 13, 2013 // WASHINGTON, D.C. // Today, Roger King, a partner with the law firm of Jones Day and an attorney for the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told a U.S. House of Representatives committee that the National Labor Relations Board faces an uncertain future now the President Obama’s appointments to the Board were found unlawful by a U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Noel Canning. President Obama had attempted to circumvent the Senate’s Constitutional role in approving nominees by filling vacancies to the Board through the recess appointment power even though the Senate was in session at the time. White House lawyers admitted in a memo the Administration relied upon at the time to justify the move that the appointments posed a “novel question” and created risk of litigation.

In today’s testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, King stated:

“Despite efforts by the NLRB and the current Administration to suggest that Noel Canning is only one case about one company, the decision has placed a dark cloud not only over the NLRB, but over every agency that relies on recess appointees to carry out the important work of the federal government. … [C]ountless Board actions are now of dubious validity, including Board decisions, rules, delegations of authority, official appointments, and many other Board actions.”

King also testified regarding the “uncertain future of the” NLRB following the case, adding:

“In short, the Board finds itself in the same position it has repeatedly found itself during the last decade: its ability to perform its statutory duty of enforcing the nation’s labor laws and promoting industrial stability is in doubt. Many interested stakeholders, including the Executive and the Board, could have taken actions to minimize, or perhaps prevent, this stain on the Board’s reputation.”

King’s full testimony can be found at www.MyPrivateBallot.com. CDW was involved in the Noel Canning case. Learn more at http://myprivateballot.com/litigation/unlawful-recess-appointment-lawsuit/