Bush sidesteps Congress to appoint labor relations, regulatory nominees

President Bush announced a series of recess appointments Wednesday, filling a Democratic slot on a board handling federal labor-management disputes and sidestepping stalled nomination proceedings to name a controversial head of regulatory policy.

The reappointment of Carol Pope to the Federal Labor Relations Authority will round out the three-member panel, which had been without a Democrat since Pope's term expired last year. By law, the independent quasi-judicial agency for adjudicating disputes between labor unions and agencies cannot have more than two board members of the same political affiliation. It already had two Republicans.

The National Treasury Employees Union welcomed the appointment. Pope is "extremely qualified" and brings a "wealth of knowledge and experience," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said in a statement.

NTEU and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, had urged the administration to fill the Democratic vacancy.

Officials also announced the recess appointment of Susan Dudley as administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, following her previous nomination for that position, which never got far off the ground.

Dudley had a confirmation hearing last November, but several senators raised questions about her previous work at the Mercatus Center, a think tank at George Mason University. There, she frequently took positions against regulations in such areas as public health and the environment. In the face of opposition within the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, her candidacy was never brought to a vote.

At her hearing, Dudley told senators that as a researcher, she had sometimes advocated intentionally provocative positions, but that at OMB she would have "a different role."

Dudley was renominated for the post in January and since then has served as an OMB senior adviser on regulatory policy.

In a statement Wednesday, OMB pointed out that the regulatory office has been without a confirmed chief for more than a year. Dudley "brings a balanced and comprehensive understanding of the regulatory process, and her principled approach emphasizes careful research and transparent analysis," the statement said.

Meanwhile, critics at Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group, geared up for a contentious relationship with Dudley. "This is devastating news for the public," said Joan Claybrook, the group's president.

"Instead of facing up to her record on the issues, the president has decided to evade public accountability and just hand her this incredibly powerful office," said Robert Shull, Public Citizen's deputy director for auto safety and regulatory policy.

A spokeswoman for Lieberman, chairman of the oversight committee before which many nominees testify, condemned the administration's use of a recess appointment to bypass that process. "Senator Lieberman was proceeding with Ms. Dudley's nomination, and there has been no suggestion that she would be denied an up-or-down vote in the Senate," the spokeswoman said.