A powerful House committee chairman has used a vote on theNational Labor Relations Board to take aim at the ConsumerFinancial Protection Bureau.

The House Financial ServicesCommittee said Friday that Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) voted with the majority Thursday torequire the NLRB to cease activity until legal uncertainty over thepresident's appointment of board members is resolved.

The resolution, H.R. 1120, is titled “Preventing GreaterUncertainty in Labor-Management Relations Act” and was sponsored byRep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.). According to House records, the resolutionpassed 226-194.

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District ofColumbia invalidated three appointments President Barack Obama made tothe NLRB a year earlier, unanimously ruling that the president hadexceeded his constitutional authority in bypassing Senateconfirmation.

On the same day the president made the now-invalidated NLRBappointments, he appointed Richard Cordray to serve as director ofthe Consumer Financial ProtectionBureau – again, bypassing the constitutionally required Senateconfirmation, the committee said.

“In the same way the NLRB appointments create uncertainty, thepresident's non-recess recess appointment of the CFPB directorcalls into question the legality of all actions undertaken by theCFPB since this appointment was made,” Hensarling said.

“Congress and the president should take this opportunity toenact common-sense fixes so the CFPB is accountable and transparentto hard-working taxpayers,” Hensarling said.

“That means, at a minimum, the CFPB should be governed by abipartisan commission, which is how other federal agencies chargedwith consumer or investor protection operate,” the Texas Republicansaid.

“And to ensure there is proper oversight of its spending, theCFPB's budget secrecy must end,” he said.

Cordray's permanent appointment to the post wasapproved by the Senate Banking Committee on March 19 and nowawaits a vote by the full Senate.