President Barack Obama and his advisers are contemplating on whether to appoint Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while Congress is away from the Capitol. The Republicans have already stated that they would block any recess appointments made by the administration. Congressional Recess

The White House knows that appointing Cordray would lead to a court battle with Republicans in Congress during an election year. This is according to sources who wanted to remain unnamed because they were not authorized to speak publicly with regards to the issue on hand.

White House officials have already told Cordray to be ready to become the acting consumer bureau chair as soon as possible. The final decision with regards to the recess appointment has not been made yet. White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment about it.

The Constitution allows the president to appoint people when the US Senate is in recess. Congressional Republicans refused to adopt a resolution to formally go into recess and the senators appeared every three days for a brief session. This kept Obama from appointing officials when Congress began its holiday break last month.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Justice Department opinions and congressional practice backed the position that the Senate should be in recess for more than three days before the president could make any recess appointment.