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House and Senate lawmakers are pressing the Justice Department for answers regarding the validity of President Obama's recent appointment of Richard Cordray to the director post of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a Jan. 6 letter, House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., urged the department to disclose any input or advice it offered the president regarding Cordray's appointment. Bachus and other Republicans maintain the Senate was not in recess when Cordray was appointed CFPB director.

In his letter, Bachus is asking the Justice Department to respond by Jan. 20 to the following questions:

• What input or advice did the Justice Department provide the Obama administration prior to Cordray's appointment?
• What is the department's view on whether or not the Senate was "in recess" at the time of the appointment?
• Can the president make a recess appointment for a newly created position?

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is asking the Justice Department similar questions. In his letter, Grassley maintains that previous Justice Department legal opinions define a recess as a period longer than three days.

The Jan. 4 appointment of Cordray occurred during a three-day congressional break. Lawmakers are questioning whether that break qualifies as a recess. Republican lawmakers favor replacing the CFPB direction position with a bipartisan, five-member commission.

NAFCU also supports such a change. And while it views Cordray as fair-minded and open to the views of credit unions, the association has also long maintained that the CFPB should have authority to oversee nondepository providers, but not the nation's not-for-profit credit unions.