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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama intends to use the congressional recess to bypass the Senate and appoint Dr. Donald Berwick, an expert on patient care who's drawn fire from the GOP, to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, the White House announced late Tuesday. The appointment was to be made Wednesday, with lawmakers out of town for their annual July Fourth break, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said in a post on the White House blog.

<p>Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan D. Bersin said Thursday he didn't know he's required by law to file paperwork verifying that his household employees were authorized to work in the United States.</p> <p>Bersin told senators that he and his wife tracked the immigration status of a nanny, house cleaners and babysitters "on a piece of paper that was on file in our home."</p>

BULLETIN: Obama announces more than a dozen recess appointments, including NRLB nominee Craig Becker. 3 minutes ago via Tweetie Appointments include 5 members of EEOC, senior DHS management offcial, CPB...

Top Democrat vows to block possible Bush nominee 41 minutes ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed on Wednesday to block former Solicitor General Theodore Olson from becoming attorney general if President George W. Bush nominates him to replace Alberto Gonzales. Congressional and administration officials have described Olson as a leading contender for the job as the nation's chief U.S. law enforcement officer, but Reid declared: "Ted Olson will not be confirmed" by the Senate. "He's a partisan, and the last thing we need as an attorney general is a partisan," Reid told Reuters in a brief hallway interview on...

The Utah mine tragedy underlines the importance of oversight of presidential appointments Saturday, August 18, 2007 T he United States Senate knew exactly how to respond when Richard Strickler was nominated to monitor the health and safety of U.S. miners. It rejected him. Twice. Last year, President Bush waited until October, when senators were out of town, to hand Stickler what's called a "recess appointment," meaning he got the job without having to be confirmed. As the drama unfolds beneath Utah, it seems none to soon to re-examine quite what was the Senate's concern? It turns out that senators, who...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Wednesday threatened to block Republicans from forcing a vote on a Mississippi judge in a new fight in the well-trod arena of judicial confirmations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would move to kill the Republicans' symbolic resolution calling for a vote of the full Senate on the appeals court nomination of Leslie Southwick of Mississippi. The motion could come as early as Thursday. Democratic leaders wanted to wait to see if the nomination survived a Thursday session of the Senate Judiciary Committee, several officials said. Republicans said any vote on Southwick's...

NOTE: there are rumors that Justice John Paul Stevens may be very ill and will soon retire. If the Dems take the Senate, all may not be lost. They would certainly not allow a conservative nominee out of committee and, if they don't take the Senate, they would certainly filibuster a conservative. =============================================================================== QUESTION FOR C-SPAN: President Clinton has made some controversial “recess appointments.” How do these work? Don’t they go against the confirmation powers of the Senate? Loami, Illinois - 5/3/00 ANSWER: No, both are found in the Constitution in Article II, section 2. Clause 2 gives the Senate...

The New York Times, other liberal media and various UN advocacy groups are launching a pre-emptive attack against UN Ambassador John Bolton’s re-nomination. After an up-or-down Senate vote was blocked last year, Bolton was given the job as UN Ambassador by President Bush anyway as a presidential recess appointment. That appointment expires at the end of this Congressional term in January 2007. Hence, Bolton’s nomination is coming up again before the Senate, with a hearing scheduled by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for this Thursday, July 27th.

Debbie Schlussel: BREAKING: As PREDICTED by SCHLUSSEL, Unqualified Julie Myers Gets Bush Recess Appt. to Head ICE By Debbie Schlussel DAMN! You heard it here, first. Back in November, we broke the news that Julie L. Myers--President Bush's unqualified nominee to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)--would get a recess appointment. Unfortunately, yet another of our dark predictions has come true (like our Al-Arian-would-walk prediction). Today, the White House announced that President Bush gave Ms. Myers the ultimate undeserved Christmas present over the holidays. Bush gave Julie Myers a recess appointment as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, overseeing ICE. Happy...

ASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday bypassed the Senate to install former Navy Secretary Gordon R. England as deputy secretary of defense. He used a similar maneuver to name Julie L. Myers as assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration and customs enforcement. Myers grew up in Johnson County. In all, Bush named 17 persons to government positions, using recess appointments to bypass senators who had blocked the nominations. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Myers’ nomination in October, with all nine committee Republicans voting in favor. The panel’s six Democrats objected, saying she lacked sufficient experience...

President George W. Bush on Wednesday bypassed the Senate during the congressional recess and appointed Gordon England to be deputy defense secretary. Bush had nominated England when he was Navy Secretary to the No. 2 Defense Department post to succeed Paul Wolfowitz in March, but the nomination stalled in the Senate amid concern among some lawmakers. England has been acting deputy defense secretary and was performing most of those duties. Bush also did a recess appointment for Dorrance Smith as head of the Pentagon's public affairs department after the nomination ran into resistance among some Democrats on the Senate Armed...

Navy Secretary Gordon England-- who has also been serving as the acting deputy defense secretary-- gave up his Navy post Thursday, clearing the way for a new naval leader. The move will allow Donald Winter to be sworn in as Navy secretary next week. Congressional roadblocks have prevented Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld from filling key leadership positions in his department for months. But legal maneuvering by the White House, which formally designated acting deputy England as Rumsfeld's second in command last week, allowed England to relinquish the Navy job. Two senators have blocked England's confirmation as deputy defense secretary,...

I know this is a nit, but why do some news outlets (like Fox) say Bush has 110 recess appointments but others (AP) say he has 106? AP http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/01/AR2005080100476_pf.html President Bush: 106 recess appointments, including Bolton, mostly to minor posts. Fox http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164443,00.html So far, President Bush has made 110 recess appointments. Among the most controversial were William Pryor (search) to be a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and Charles Pickering (search) to be a judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush again invoked a constitutional provision enabling him to bypass the Senate and install a nominee who had been blocked in the Senate. This time, he named Peter Flory to be an assistant secretary of defense. The move Tuesday came a day after Bush used the same power to install John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The Constitution gives the president the authority to put an official on the job without waiting for Senate confirmation when Congress is in recess. The official then can serve until the end of the current Congress, which in...

<p>THE PRESIDENT: Nearly five months ago, I nominated John Bolton to be America's Ambassador to the United Nations. I chose John because of his vast experience in foreign policy, his integrity and his willingness to confront difficult problems head-on. I told the nation that John Bolton would provide clear American leadership for reform at the United Nations. I told them that he would insist upon results.</p>

President Bush may use a recess appointment early next week to install John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, two senior administration officials told CNN Thursday. The move would likely inflame some Democrats who have said Bolton doesn't have the temperament to hold the U.N. post. The administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to put an exact time frame on when the recess appointment might occur. But they suggested the White House is planning to make the move as early as next week. White House press secretary Scott McClellan hinted at the scenario Monday, saying it...

The White House signaled on Monday that President Bush may bypass the Senate and appoint John Bolton, his embattled nominee for U.N. ambassador, to the post temporarily as hope faded for a Senate vote on the nomination. Congressional aides said a recess appointment could be announced as early as Friday night, immediately after the Senate is scheduled to adjourn for the monthlong August break. A recess appointment would allow Bolton to take up the U.N. post but he would serve only until January 2007. The nomination of the blunt-spoken conservative has been held up by accusations he tried to manipulate...

John R. Bolton's nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations was the hottest issue in Congress a few months ago. But it has virtually evaporated this summer, eclipsed by speculation over a Supreme Court nominee and the fate of the president's top political adviser. With neither the White House nor Senate Democrats showing any sign of yielding in their long-running dispute over documents related to Bolton's State Department work, speculation is rife that Bolton is prepared to accept a recess appointment good through the end of 2006, despite warnings from some GOP senators that it would weaken his influence...

DAYTON | The most vocal Republican opponent to John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations said there is a "55/45" chance the Bush administration will name Bolton to the job while Congress is in recess. But Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, also said, "I have a gut feeling that logic will prevail" against appointing Bolton. "It's like the children's story, the Emperor's Clothes: Everybody knows he's in his underwear and nobody will say it," Voinovich said Friday in an interview with the Dayton Daily News editorial board. Voinovich's outspoken opposition to Bolton's appointment has attracted national attention. He allowed...

THE BITTERLY contentious nomination of John Bolton to be UN ambassador comes to a showdown this holiday weekend. With the Senate having twice refused to break a filibuster over Bolton, President Bush may use his power to make a recess appointment during Congress's Fourth of July break. Bolton would then serve without Senate confirmation until the next Congress ends, in late 2006. Or Bush could withdraw Bolton's name. Bolton's views on the UN are hostile. He is known as a short-tempered martinet. He got poor reviews for his last job as undersecretary of state for arms control. For instance, Bolton...