President Barack Obama on Saturday wielded his recess appointment powers for the first time, clearing 15 nominees to assume posts that have remained vacant for months due to insurmountable congressional roadblocks.

Among the 15 named just days before the Senate departs for Easter recess are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, the White House's two, hotly contested nominees for the National Labor Relations Board.

Republicans have staunchly opposed both nominees, Becker especially, for their pro-labor positions. Business associations were also opposed to the appoinment of Becker, an associate general counsel to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and AFL-CIO who was nominated by Obama to the NLRB but failed this February to secure 60 votes in the Senate for confirmation. Still, their appointment to the NLRB means the agency may now resume deciding labor disputes without the looming threat of a shutdown by the Supreme Court.

Noticeably absent from the list, however, is Dawn Johnsen, the White House's nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel. Republicans have long excoriated Johnsen for being too much of an ideologue to run such an important wing of the Justice Department, though the Obama administration has repeated it remains confident in her leadership abilities.

Nevertheless, Obama attributed the need for recess appointments on the "unprecedented level of obstruction" in the U.S. Senate, led primarily by the chamber's Republicans.

The White House calculated that the 15 nominees named on Saturday have awaited confirmation votes for an average of 214 days, or seven months -- or, put differently, a combined total of 3,204 days, or nine years.

"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis," Obama said, noting all of the appointments must still be confirmed after this year.

"Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate," the president added. "I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government."

Still, the president's recess appointments are likely to draw the ire of Senate Republicans, all 41 of whom warned Obama in a letter last week not to invoke the Constitutionally provided power, especially with respect to Becker.

The GOP has opposed Becker primarily because of his connections to labor groups and support for card-check legislation, which would make it easier for employees to form unions. But his nomination stalled in the Senate even when Democrats had a 60-vote supermajority, as some of the party's members -- including Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) -- felt he might be too aggressive for the job.

Consequently, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) condemned the administration's move on Saturday, adding that Becker's appointment "is yet another episode of [the president] choosing a partisan path despite bipartisan opposition."

"The president previously held that appointing an individual in this manner meant that the nominee would have ‘less credibility,’ and that assessment certainly fits this nomination," the GOP leader said. "This is a purely partisan move that will make a traditionally bipartisan labor board an unbalanced agenda-driven panel."

Yet, the appointment of both Becker and Pearce means the NLRB now has enough members to constitute a quorum for the first time since 2007. That should safeguard the board from additional legal challenges that could have ultimately shut down the agency indefinitely.

"I look forward to beginning work with them, and especially to addressing cases that have been pending for a long time," Wilma Liebman, the board's chairwoman, later said in a statement.

But Becker and Pearce were not the only White House nominees named Saturday likely to anger GOP lawmakers.

Also appointed over recess will be: Jeffrey Goldstein as under secretary for Domestic Finance, Michael F. Mundaca as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Eric L. Hirschhorn as an under secretary of Commerce, Michael Punke as deputy trade representative, Francisco "Frank" J. Sanchez as under secretary for international trade, Islam A. Siddiqui as chief agricultural negotiator, Alan Bersin for commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Jill Long Thompson as a member of the Farm Credit Administration Board, Rafael Borrae as under secretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security, Jacqueline A. Berrien, chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai R. Feldblum as commissioner of the EEOC, Victoria L. Lipnic as commissioner of the EEOC P. David Lopez as general counsel of the EEOC, as well as Becker and Pearce.

A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must normally be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office. However while the U.S. Senate is in recess the President can act alone by making a recess appointment. To remain in effect a recess appointment must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session of Congress, or the position becomes vacant again; in current practice this means that a recess appointment must be approved by roughly the end of the next calendar year. Recess appointments are authorized by Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states: "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."

What Is a "Recess"? Generally, a recess is a break in House or Senate proceedings. Neither House may take a break of more than three days without the consent of the other. Such consent is usually provided through a concurrent resolution. A recess within a session is referred to as an intrasession recess. In recent decades, Congress has typically adjourned for 5-11 intrasession recesses of more than three days, usually in conjunction with national holidays. The break between the end of one session and the beginning of the next is referred to as an intersession recess. In recent decades, each Congress has consisted of two 9-12 month sessions separated by an intersession recess.

The period between the second session of one Congress and the first session of the following Congress is also an intersession recess. Recent Presidents have made both intersession and intrasession recess appointments. Intrasession recess appointments were unusual, however, prior to the 1940s, in part because intrasession recesses were less common at that time. Intrasession recess appointments have sometimes provoked controversy in the Senate, and some academic literature also has called their legitimacy into question. Intrasession recess appointments are usually of longer duration than intersession recess appointments.

What Is a "Session"? For the purposes of the recess appointment clause, the word "session" refers to the period between the reconvening of the Senate after a sine die adjournment and the next sine die adjournment. The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution provides that Congress will meet annually on January 3, "unless they shall by law appoint a different day." Generally, a session of the Senate begins on that day and continues until sine die adjournment, usually in the fall. The Senate could be called back into session after sine die adjournment if certain conditions have been included in the adjournment resolution. Nonetheless, sine die adjournment is generally considered to be the end of the Senate’s session for purposes of the expiration of a recess appointment.