Politico: Obama tries to fill out NLRB

President Obama named three nominees to the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday in an effort to fill out the five-member, bipartisan board that has become the center of a dispute over recess appointments.

His new nominees include two Republicans, lawyers Harry I. Johnson, III and Philip A. Miscimarra, and he also renominated Democrat Mark Gaston Pearce, who is currently serving on the board.

“With these nominations there will be five nominees to the NLRB, both Republicans and Democrats, awaiting Senate confirmation," Obama said in a statement. "I urge the Senate to confirm them swiftly so that this bipartisan board can continue its important work on behalf of the American people.”

The board has been somewhat in legal limbo since a court ruled earlier this year that three recess appointments the president made to the board were unconsitutional because the Senate was not technically in recess when Obama made the appointments in January 2012.

In February, Obama renominated two of those appointees, Sharon Block, a former counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Richard Griffin, former lawyer for the International Union of Operating Engineers. If all five are confirmed, the board would be composed of three Democrats and two Republicans.