Senate Republicans late this afternoon blocked the confirmation of labor lawyer Craig Becker to fill a vacancy on the National Labor Relations Board. The vote was 52-33, eight short of the 60 votes needed to force final consideration of Mr. Becker’s appointment.

Two Democrats, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, voted with 31 Republicans to reject Mr. Becker, who had served as a top legal adviser to major labor unions. Fifteen senators were absent due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Republicans said they feared that Mr. Becker would try to use his seat on the board to ease union organizing in the workplace; Democrats said Republicans were abusing their power to block presidential appointees due to their deep anti-labor views.

Republicans have slowed the confirmation process for dozens of President Obama’s nominees, raising the prospect that the president will install some through so-called recess appointments when the Senate adjourns for a holiday break at the end of the week. Republicans immediately called on Mr. Obama not to place Mr. Becker on the board in that fashion.



“I sincerely hope the White House does not circumvent the will of the Senate by appointing him when the Senate is out of session,” Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, said.

The timing of the vote meant that one of the first official acts of Senator Scott Brown, the newly elected Republican from Massachusetts, was to sustain a Republican filibuster against a presidential nominee.