Obama defies Republicans recess appointments

US President Obama has defied Republican lawmakers when he bypassed Congress and invoked presidential recess appointment authority to install former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to head the newly formed consumer agency.

Defying opposition in Congress, Obama named Cordray as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

He also made three other appointments to fill vacant seats on the National Labour Relations Board.

The announcement of these appointments, when the Senate is in recess, drew angry response from Republican lawmakers.

During his tour to Ohio, Obama announced his intent to recess appoint four individuals to fill key administration posts that have been left vacant including, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The other three are members of the National Labour Relations Board: Sharon Block, Terence F Flynn, and Richard Griffin.

"When Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them.

I've got an obligation to act on behalf of the American people," Obama said.

"And I'm not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve."

"Not with so much at stake, not at this make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans. We're not going to let that happen," Obama said.

"This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department."

"The precedent that would be set by this cavalier action would have a devastating effect on the checks and balances that are enshrined in our constitution," he said.

"This position had not been filled for one reason: the agency it heads is bad for jobs and bad for the economy."

"This action goes beyond the Presidents authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate," Boehner said.

However, the Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, came out in support of the appointments.

"After millions of Americans lost their jobs, retirement funds and life savings in the economic crisis, they asked their elected leaders to rein in the greed and recklessness on Wall Street that led to the crisis."

"We listened, and passed a bipartisan law that created a consumer watchdog to guard against abuses by big banks, abusive mortgage companies, and unscrupulous lenders," Reid said in a statement.