Associated Press
As President-elect Donald Trump moves to set up a more forceful presidency than in his first term, he is choosing loyalists for his Cabinet and considering a tool known as recess appointments to skip over Senate confirmations for even some of the most powerful positions in U.S. government.
Trump over the weekend demanded that Republican leaders in the Senate, who will hold a majority in the chamber next year, agree to allow recess appointments. It would be a significant shift in power away from the Senate, but Trump is returning to Washington with almost total support from his party, including the more traditional Republicans who still hold sway in the chamber.
Their commitment, however, is being tested now that Trump has turned to picked people outside the Republican Party mainstream like former Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii for top positions.
It quickly became apparent Wednesday that figures like Gaetz, who Trump announced as his choice for attorney general, may struggle to gain majority support from the Senate, even though Republicans will enjoy a 53-seat majority. But that may not matter if Trump is able to use recess appointments.
The Senate, as set up by the U.S. Constitution, holds an important role in confirming — or rejecting — high-level officials like Cabinet positions, judges and ambassadors. It’s part of the government’s checks and balances that ensures the president does not get to unilaterally rule. However, there is a clause in the Constitution that allows presidents to fill out their administrations while the Senate is in recess.
During the nation’s early history, Congress would take months-long breaks from Washington, and presidents could use recess appointments to avoid having an important job go unfilled. But more recently, the process of recess appointments has been featured in partisan fights with the president.
President Bill Clinton made 139 recess appointments and President George W. Bush made 171, though neither used the process for top-level Cabinet positions, according to the Congressional Research Service. President Barack Obama tried to continue the practice, using it 32 times, but a 2014 Supreme Court ruling put a check on the president’s power to make recess appointments.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Senate has to recess or adjourn for 10 days before a president can make unilateral appointments. That’s resulted in a practice where the Senate — even during weeks-long breaks from Washington — still holds pro-forma sessions where one senator opens and closes the chamber, but no legislative business is conducted.
The House also holds some power over recess appointments by refusing to allow the Senate to adjourn.
Trump envisions becoming a president who is much stronger and forceful than perhaps any before him.
While still president in 2020, Trump threatened to use recess appointments after Democrats had slowed the Senate from confirming his nominees. He threatened to use a presidential power in the Constitution to adjourn both chambers of Congress on “extraordinary occasions” and when there is a disagreement between the House and Senate on adjourning.
When Trump becomes president again next year, he will be working with Republicans who hold a majority in the House and Senate and are promising to back his agenda. But the demand for recess appointments allows Trump to flex his political power and potentially ram through even the most controversial choices for his administration.
Sen. John Thune, who was elected as the next Senate majority leader this week, is pledging to keep “an aggressive schedule until his nominees are confirmed.” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, is also not taking recess appointments off the table.
To allow Trump to make the appointments, Republican senators would have to pass a motion of adjournment with a simple majority vote, though Democrats would likely do everything in their power to prevent it. It is also not clear if such a move would be fully supported by GOP senators.
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
17 comments
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
November 16, 2024 at 3:08 pm
INSTITUTIONAL SUICIDE.
Exactly what part of “advise and consent” does this President not understand? What is wrong with having his nominees undergo the usual scrutiny, so that appointments to these important positions are made “advisedly”? This present process has served us well since the very beginning of the American Republic, and there is no compelling reason for us to use “emergency” provisions to avoid using it now.
Can the process be “abused”? Of course, but that’s part of the cost of doing business in a Constitutional Democracy. Will Matt Gaetz get his feelings hurt? (Wait. Lemme think about that one).
I see utterly no reason for us to do anything other than what we have always done. If the Republican Trifecta proves unable to govern for any substantial period of time, maybe we can revisit this, but not now.
Live Free or Die.
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November 17, 2024 at 7:35 am
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PAY UP
November 16, 2024 at 3:15 pm
LARRY you flushed your vote. you have no say on how bad trump is going to mess things up. he will mess things up very badly, and it will be partly your fault for flushing your vote. nuts like you are prat of the problem, not the solution. pay up for helping screw my country over. libertarian, what a joke.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
November 16, 2024 at 5:44 pm
Both “legacy” Parties have it wrong. More government is NOT the default mode in addressing society’s perceived problems. Vote Libertarian, my friend.
PAY UP
November 16, 2024 at 9:04 pm
larry, you don’t get it. i’m for big government ran with modern day accountability. i’t’s real doable if money freaks will get out of the way. you, are on an opposite path where there is no trust and everyone is out for themselves. you can keep that rand paul bs, i don’t want it.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
November 18, 2024 at 12:18 pm
“ACCOUNTABILITY,” HE SAID.
If we have such wonderful “governmental accountability”, Bro, why are we $36T in the hole (and counting)?
Oh, wait: yu think that the Fed can simply print more money to pay off the debt, and the problem is solved, right? (Ask the Weimar Republic how well that particular approach worked out).
Red Storm
November 16, 2024 at 7:29 pm
You flushed yours too.🤣
Otoh
November 17, 2024 at 9:10 pm
How’s that market going? Cheap eggs yet? And the Tariff Layoffs????
Red Storm
November 16, 2024 at 4:04 pm
Demos are gonna obstruct. The Repubs are in control for two years. Take full advantage of it. You know the Demos would.
PAY UP
November 16, 2024 at 9:08 pm
MAGA TRASH ED, speak for yourself. don’t speak for us dems. you don’t have the integrity to do that.
Red Storm
November 16, 2024 at 10:13 pm
No, I don’t speak for Dems. You are also outnumbered, look at the map, both electoral and popular vote. Tennessee is solid Red, especially East. Hilarious.
MarvinM
November 17, 2024 at 4:42 pm
“Take full advantage of it. You know the Demos would.”
Actually, we do know that the dems didn’t take advantage of this in the past.
Congress has been in session without a long recess for years now, under both R and D presidents, and R and/or D congress majorities. Precisely in part so that neither R nor D presidents could push though “unpopular” cabinet choices without having the Senate advise about them and consent to them.
The current situation has nothing to do with democrats, it has only to do with one president-elect who is asking the Republican led congress to cede their constitutional power to him so he can place persons into the cabinet who are either utterly unqualified or are ethically compromised – or both (but are loyal to him. Umm, you are supposed to be loyal to the Constitution, not a person).
Tom Palmer
November 16, 2024 at 5:29 pm
Even the intelligent GOP members of Congress would like to ask some questions. This certainly happened in earlier times. Do not avoid your constitutional obligations.
PAY UP
November 16, 2024 at 8:31 pm
LARRY, i didn’t vote. there wasn’t a democratic socialist candidate running for me to vote for. harris was way too moderate for me. so larry, you are wrong, you flushed yours, i didn’t waste my time. the big money people won’t ever let my team have a candidate.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
November 18, 2024 at 12:23 pm
TO “PAY UP”, NOTED DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST:
Margaret Thatcher (she of happy memory) once said: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”.
Hung Wiil
November 17, 2024 at 5:08 pm
Why would the name of the Supreme Court case, and a active link to it, be presented in the article. It would improve journalism.
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