Obama Makes Several Recess Appointments

Republicans had been blocking Obama's nominations. What else is new?

President Obama Announces Recess Appointments to Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – President Obama announced today his intent to recess appoint six nominees to fill key administration posts that have been left vacant for an extended period of time.

The President announced his intent to recess appoint the following nominees:

William J. Boarman, Nominee for Public Printer of the United States
William J. Boarman is President of the Printing, Publishing & Media Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the Senior Vice President of CWA. Mr. Boarman has been associated with the printing industry, its labor relations and personnel management for over 40 years starting with his four-year apprenticeship at McArdle Printing in Washington, D.C., succeeding to Journeyman Printer (Practical Printer by Trade) in 1971. In 1974 Mr. Boarman accepted an appointment as Printer to GPO. In 1977, Mr. Boarman took a leave of absence from GPO to serve in various elected posts within the International Typographical Union, which merged with CWA in 1987. He is chairman of the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan, a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan with assets of $1 billion; President of the International Allied Printing Trades Association; and President of the Union Printers Home, a 122-bed skilled nursing facility in Colorado Springs, CO. Mr. Boarman served three terms as co-chair of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) and as the first-ever public member of the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

Matthew J. Bryza, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Department of State
Matthew J. Bryza is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs. He previously served as the Director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Security Council in the White House. He was also Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy. Mr. Bryza has also served in Russia and Poland. Mr. Bryza received a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

James M. Cole, Nominee for Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice
James Cole has been a partner with Bryan Cave LLP since 1995. His practice includes counseling corporations on compliance, securities, regulatory, and criminal law issues, as well as representation of corporations and individuals before grand juries, in congressional hearings, in court proceedings, and before federal agencies. Mr. Cole was an official with the United States Department of Justice for 13 years before entering private practice in 1992, serving as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section during his last three years. In 1992 he was also appointed to be a member of President Clinton's Transition Team reviewing aspects of the Department of Justice. Mr. Cole has been a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching courses on public corruption law and legal ethics, and has lectured at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He was the former Chair of the ABA White Collar Crime Committee and First Vice-Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section. He received his B.A. from the University of Colorado and his J.D. from the University of California-Hastings.

Norman L. Eisen, Nominee for Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Department of State
Norman L. Eisen has served since January 20, 2009 as Special Assistant to the President and as Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform. In that capacity, he has helped lead the Administration’s historic initiatives on government ethics, lobbying regulation and open government. His portfolio has also included financial regulatory reform, campaign finance law, whistleblower protection and other reform issues. Mr. Eisen before that was the Deputy General Counsel to the Presidential Transition. Prior to the Administration, Mr. Eisen was a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. He launched and co-chaired the firm’s Public Client Practice, representing government entities on an array of matters, as well as handling white-collar investigations and complex commercial matters. He is the co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group. Between college and law school, Mr. Eisen served for three years as an Assistant Director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League, a national civil rights organization. Mr. Eisen received his J.D. in 1991 from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Brown University in 1985, both with honors.

Robert Stephen Ford, Nominee for Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic, Department of State
Robert Stephen Ford is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He presently works for the State Department’s Inspector General’s Office. Immediately prior to that assignment, Ambassador Ford served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to Algeria on May 27, 2006, and sworn in on August 11, 2006. Mr. Ford served from 2004 until 2006 and again from 2008 until 2009 as the Political Counselor to the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq and was Deputy Chief of Mission in Bahrain from 2001 until 2004. Mr. Ford has also served in a number of other posts since entering the Foreign Service in 1985, including Izmir, Cairo, Algiers, and Yaoundé. He is a recipient of a number of Department of State awards, including the 2005 James Clement Dunn Award for outstanding work at the mid-level in the Foreign Service as well as three Superior Honor Awards and two Meritorious Honor awards. Mr. Ford earned a Master of Arts in 1983 from Johns Hopkins University.

Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr., Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, Department of State
Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr., is a Career Minister in the Foreign Service. He most recently served as Deputy Ambassador and Charge’ d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He also served as Ambassador to Egypt until 2008, and Ambassador to the Philippines and concurrently to Palau. Ambassador Ricciardone began his career in Ankara and Adana, Turkey. He served twice again in Turkey, as political advisor to the US and Turkish commanders of Operation Provide Comfort at Incirlik Air Force Base, and as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge’ d’Affaires. He led the transition to an organization of the US Embassy in Baghdad in 2004, and the Department of State’s Task Force in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. He served as former Secretary Albright’s Special Representative for the Transition of Iraq from 1999-2001. Ambassador Ricciardone graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1973.