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Blame Obama and Reid (I’d blame Pelosi too, but the House doesn’t vote on this)

From December 2007 until March 2009, the five-member Board had only two members, creating a legal controversy. Three members’ terms expired in December 2007, leaving the NLRB with just two members—Chair Wilma B. Liebman and Member Peter Schaumber.[4] President George W. Bush refused to make some nominations to the Board and Senate Democrats refused to confirm those he did.[4][5][6] Just before the Board lost a quorum, the five Members agreed to delegate their authority to a three-person panel (as provided for by the National Labor Relations Act).[6][7] Only two of the members of the panel (Liebman and Schaumber) would remain on the Board, but the Board concluded that these two members constituted a quorum of the panel and thus could make decisions on behalf of the entire Board.[6][7] Liebman and Schaumber informally agreed to decide only those cases which were noncontroversial (in their view) and on which they could agree, and issued more than 400 decisions between January 2008 and September 2009.[4][5][6][8][9]

In April 2009, President Obama nominated Craig Becker (Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union), Mark Gaston Pearce (a member on the Industrial Board of Appeals, an agency of the New York State Department of Labor), and Brian Hayes (Republican Labor Policy Director for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) to fill the three empty seats on the NLRB.[4]

Meanwhile, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the two-member NLRB’s authority to decide cases, while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals did not.[4][5][8][9] In September 2009, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately hear arguments concerning the dispute, given the high stakes involved.[5] The Supreme Court granted certiorari in October and agreed to decide the issue.[10] In the spring of 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the NLRB could have no quorum with just two members, likely invalidating hundreds of previous rulings made by Liebman and Schaumber.

Becker’s nomination appeared to fail on February 8, 2010, after Republican Senators (led by John McCain) threatened to filibuster his nomination.[6][11] President Obama said he would consider making recess appointments to the NLRB due to the Senate’s failure to move on any of the three nominations.[11] True to his word, Obama on March 27, 2010 recess appointed both Becker and Pearce to the NLRB.[12]

On June 22, 2010, the Senate in a voice vote unanimously confirmed Pearce to a full term, thus allowing him to serve until August 27, 2013, instead of only through the end of 2011, which was what his recess appointment would have allowed. Also on June 22, 2010, the Senate confirmed Republican nominee Brian Hayes of Massachusetts in a voice vote, allowing Hayes to serve in a term that will end December 16, 2012.