By David Harrison, CQ Staff

The entire Senate Republican Conference asked President Obama on Monday to give assurances that he would not use a brief congressional recess to appoint two National Labor Relations Board nominees, while a smaller group requested that he withdraw his nomination for NLRB general counsel.

The requests, which came in separate letters, are further proof that the Senate has not let up on the pressure on the NLRB, even though the agency dropped a complaint against the Boeing Co. that drew the ire of conservatives and business groups.

Only three members currently sit on the five-member NLRB and one of them, Craig Becker, is scheduled to see his recess appointment end at the close of this session. Under a 2010 Supreme Court ruling, the board must have a quorum of three to issue rules and adjudicate cases. Barring an unlikely last-minute Senate confirmation, the board will be paralyzed in a matter of days.

Obama nominated Sharon Block, a former labor department official, and Richard Griffin, a union official, to serve on the board last week, but their prospects for confirmation are dim. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said he would block all NLRB nominations until an investigation into the agency’s role in the Boeing complaint is completed.

The Senate concluded its expected business for the year Dec. 17 and will not resume legislative session until Jan. 23. Although senators scheduled pro forma sessions to prevent the president from making recess appointments, they will still have to adjourn briefly between Dec. 30 and Jan. 3 to mark the end of the first session of the 112th Congress and the start of the second.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked confirmation of a slew of judicial and executive branch nominees last week because he said the White House had not assured him that Obama would not make recess appointments during the break. Such assurances have routinely been given in the past, McConnell said on the Senate floor on Dec. 17. A Senate Republican leadership aide said the administration still had not provided McConnell with that commitment as of Monday afternoon.

“We urge you to avoid attempting to give your latest NLRB nominees — Ms. Block and Mr. Griffin — recess appointments at any point, especially during the mandatory adjournment between sessions of the 112th Congress, which will undoubtedly be very brief,” said the letter signed by all 47 Senate Republicans. “While some have publicly suggested doing so would be an appropriate course of action with regard to other nominations, it would, at the very least, set a dangerous precedent that would most certainly be exploited in future cases to further marginalize the Senate’s role in confirming nominees and could needlessly provoke a constitutional conflict between the Senate and the White House.”

NLRB Acting General Counsel Also Under Fire

In a separate letter, 11 Republican senators asked Obama on Monday to withdraw the nomination of Lafe Solomon to serve as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, a position he has held in an acting capacity since June 2010.

Obama sent the career NLRB attorney’s nomination to the Senate in January. Solomon outraged Republicans this year when he filed the complaint against Boeing Co., accusing the manufacturer of opening a non-union plant in South Carolina to retaliate against the International Association of Machinists in Washington state. The complaint asked that the work move back to the Puget Sound region.

Republicans and business groups called the complaint politically motivated and said it interfered with the company’s ability to do business. They said it would have a chilling effect on states trying to recruit companies to boost their economies during the ongoing downturn.

Although the NLRB dropped the complaint Dec. 9 after the union and the company reached a new four-year collective bargaining agreement, the 11 senators wrote in their letter to Obama that they wanted to make sure such a “misguided” complaint never happens again. They wrote that they were particularly alarmed by Solomon’s comments that NLRB could lodge other complaints in similar situations.

“This statement is a direct assault on business expansion in right-to-work states,” wrote the senators, who all represent right-to-work states where employees cannot be made to join a union. “American employers should have the freedom to make private business decisions without the threat of a government-appointed official filing disparaging and costly litigation. Especially during this economic climate, this sort of bullying by a federal official whom you have handpicked cannot be tolerated.”