Sunday, March 28, 2010

Obama Names Chai Feldblum to EEOC In Recess Appointment

President Barack Obama, fresh off his stunning political success with enacting national health care reform, on Saturday announced 15 recess appointments bypassing Senate confirmation. Openly lesbian Chai Feldblum ("Godmother of ENDA") was one of the 15:
Chai R. Feldblum: Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, she developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. As Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers. Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.
The White House press release notes:
  • President Obama currently has a total of 217 nominees pending before the Senate. These nominees have been pending for an average of 101 days, including 34 nominees pending for more than 6 months.
  • The 15 nominees President Obama intends to recess appoint have been pending for an average of 214 days or 7 months for a total of 3204 days or almost 9 years.
  • President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, but he was not facing the same level of obstruction. At this time in 2002, President Bush had only 5 nominees pending on the floor. By contrast, President Obama has 77 nominees currently pending on the floor, 58 of whom have been waiting for over two weeks and 44 of those have been waiting more than a month.
I don't relations between Obama and the Senate Republican caucus are gonna get any better, especially if Justice Stevens announces his retirement next month!

1 comment:

Kyle Leach said...

Ron, I was very happy that the administration did this, though obviously it is not the preferred mode of getting appointees inducted. I'm sure conservatives saw it coming and hoped he would do this giving them kindling for their fire. I think they will be shocked though,because, I think their lack of will to deal with appointees says more about them, than it does the president's choices.

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