(Reuters) - A Republican U.S. senator on Thursday questioned Jennifer Abruzzo, the nominee for National Labor Relations Board general counsel, about her involvement in President Joe Biden's firing of the Trump-era GC, suggesting she helped engineer the move so she could take the job.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said Biden's firing of former general counsel Peter Robb came at the urging of Abruzzo and other members of a White House transition team, and had undermined the NLRB's integrity.

"Your recommendation to the current administration was even though there was time left on (Robb's) term, you need to fire him," Burr said. "You're now here to take that job."

Abruzzo, who worked at the NLRB for 23 years before leaving in 2017, told Burr that she helped vet concerns from transition team members and others over Robb's management of the GC's office, including staff reductions, reduced funding and a decline in employee morale.

"I along with others felt that those concerns, as well as stakeholders' recommendations for removing Robb, be elevated," said Abruzzo, who rose to deputy general counsel at the board during the Obama administration.

Burr said Biden should have respected that Robb's four-year term did not expire until November, and that, if confirmed, Abruzzo "will come in with a dark cloud over her head."

Abruzzo faced several other pointed questions from Republicans on the committee, including about her views on state "right to work" laws, and the standards for determining joint employment and proper worker classification under the NLRA.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana asked Abruzzo whether she would recuse herself from cases involving the Communication Workers of America, where she has worked since 2018, and the AFL-CIO, of which CWA is an affiliate.

Abruzzo said she has already discussed potential conflicts with the NLRB's ethics office and would adhere to a pledge not to involve herself in "particular matters" that she worked on at CWA.

The HELP Committee at the hearing also vetted Biden's nomination of Seema Nanda, who worked at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama administration and more recently served as chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee, to be the Solicitor of Labor.

Several Republicans cited inflammatory tweets Nanda had posted during her two-year stint at the DNC to argue that she was too partisan to serve as the Department of Labor's top legal adviser.

Nanda apologized for the tweets and disavowed ones that said then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was undermining democracy by confirming Trump-appointed judges and that Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was unsympathetic to victims of sexual assault.

"Tweets can happen very quickly and sometimes they might not be exactly what we'd say if we had a little more deliberative time," Nanda said.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee's chair, and other Democrats on the panel praised both nominees, saying their ample government experience and track records of advocating for workers' rights made them well qualified for the respective jobs.