Obama Plays Hard Ball at Recess (Update 2)

Updated with market close information.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After nearly six months of obstruction by Senate Republicans, President Obama moved to make a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Bureau was created under the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which the president signed into law in July of 2010. O

President Obama in July nominated Cordray to be the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but Senate Republicans blocked a vote on whether to confirm Cordray, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying in November that the president hadn't "done a thing" to address GOP concerns over the new agency's "lack of transparency of accountability."

The Bureau won't truly be up and running, with enforcement power, until its first director is in place.

Cordray formerly served as Ohio's attorney general and treasurer, and -- as the president pointed out when he announced Cordray's nomination back in July -- was a five-time Jeopardy champion.

According to Kevin Petrasic -- a partner in the Paul Hastings Global Banking practice, in the firm's Washington, D.C. office -- the actual congressional recess on Tuesday only lasted a few of minutes, and the new session of Congress has actually begun, on a pro forma basis.

If the president had made the recess appointment during the short time between the congressional sessions, "Cordray would have been able to serve until the end of this year," or the end of the new session, according to Petrasic, but "by waiting a day, the president has gained a year," since Cordray will now be able to serve until the end of the next session of Congress, through 2013.

Petrasic said that "in effect, the administration is saying that they are not buying the pro forma session notion."

While the Senate is controlled by the Democrats, technically, the Senate stays in pro forma session, because the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has someone gaveling for business every three days, which keeps all of Congress from going into adjournment.