Posted on 11/15/2024 9:29:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President-elect Donald Trump has suggested he wants to use “recess appointments” to confirm his Cabinet nominees when he takes office, a process that could allow controversial picks like former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to avoid a contentious Senate confirmation process—but may be hard to implement in practice.
KEY FACTS
Trump said on Nov. 10 the incoming GOP-controlled Senate must be willing to allow recess appointments, “without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”
Recess appointments are when presidents name officials to jobs that normally need Senate confirmation when Congress is in recess, meaning officials can be confirmed simply because the president says so, rather than having to go through a lengthy Senate confirmation process and get the approval of a majority of senators.
That means controversial Trump picks who may not be able to get enough support in the Senate to be confirmed could still be able to get into their roles, like Gaetz, whom Trump has nominated as attorney general, plus Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services nominee Kennedy.
Recess appointments are permitted by the Constitution and were created by the Founding Fathers to ensure the government could function even when lawmakers were sometimes out of session for months at a time, given that it took much longer for them to travel back to make a vote—with Alexander Hamilton referring to them in the Federalist Papers as “nothing more than a supplement … for the purpose of establishing an auxiliary method of appointment, in cases to which the general method was inadequate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
While recess appointments were widely used for years—Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each made more than 100 during their administrations, according to the Congressional Research Service—the practice was limited by the Supreme Court in 2014, when justices ruled against then-President Barack Obama’s use of recess appointments and said they were only allowed when the recess is for longer than 10 days.
Since then, lawmakers have largely avoided having recesses that are long enough to trigger recess appointments, holding “pro forma” sessions every few days in which they just gavel in and then immediately adjourn to break up the recess without actually conducting any business.
What are the rules for declaring a recess? Can John Thune declare a recess when the GOP takes control? Since VP is president of the Senate, could JD Vance declare a recess? Does the membership of the Senate have to vote to adjourn?
Timing is everything in the Gaetz nomination
When President Trump announced the nomination of Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to be our next Attorney General he signaled his deeply held solemn intentions to do the things he promised he would during his very successful campaign.
In the last 100 years Republicans have a less than stella record of achievement when have held all three positions of power – President – Senate – and House as President Trump has now.
Truth be told, for the most part, when Republicans held control of the White House and both chambers of Congress they wasted opportunities to actually effect real change.
From 2001 -2007 at various points the Bushs were in the White House and Republicans held the Senate and House.
The Bushs did little good. They started a 20-year war based on lies and personal enrichment (think Halliburton) and did nothing about the swamp since they were card carrying members of the swamp.
1953-1955 Eisenhower built the federal highway system that greatly benefitted us all.
1927- 1933 Republicans enriched themselves on bootleg booze like everybody else with any power, sold out to Wall Street and brought us The Great Depression.
Saying the Democrats did worse when they held all three positions of power – which is true- is of little consolation.
We finally have a man – saved by God from two assassinations who genuinely wants to fix America out of love for us and our country.
His first step is to fill his Administration with capable patriotic Americans eager to help him fix what is wrong with our beloved America.
President Donald J. Trump is a man who has learned much from his successes but garnered still more from his mistakes.
He recognizes the magnitude of the moment we are living in.
He lives and breathes the urgency of this moment in our history.
President Trump will use every legally available tool he has to fashion a new America that will be prosperous and fair to all Americans regardless of their station in our society.
To that end he will use a recess appointment to place the Department of Justice in the hands of a great patriot Matt Gaetz.
President Trump is fully aware of the frailty of his position and knows full well that acting in a bold and decisive manner is his best chance to deliver a major blow to those that have had an evil grip on our lives for decades.
To take this moment and use it for our collective good President Trump will use an unusual but certainly not unheard of means to strike the swamp first and hard.
That unusual move is called a “recess appointment.”
Here’s what we need to know about a “recess appointment.”
*Once made it has been made, it has the same effect as an appointment that has been approved by the Senate.
Yes, it steps around the advise and consent responsibility of the Senate.
Based on past use, a Trump recess appointment seems odd because it has heretofore been used almost exclusively by presidents dealing with a Senate controlled by the opposite party.
While President Trump won both the Electoral College vote by a large margin and was the first Republican in twenty years to win the popular vote, his problem in the appointment of Republican Representative Matt Gaetz lies with at least 7 Republican Senators that simply cannot be relied upon to vote in the interests of the American people.
They stand as reminders that the work of cleaning out our ranks is just beginning.
We still have a lot of work to get rid of these worthless grifters.
Trump wins round one against these “domestic” enemies by appointing Matt Gaetz in a recess appointment.
Trump can and will step right around them since Senate Majority Leader John Thune supports the recess appointment route to get Matt Gaetz in control of the Department of Justice.
Do not listen to the “tough talk” from our enemies like Mitt Romney and his friends because they cannot and will not stop this appointment.
While many Republicans in the past have protested recess appointments as a brazenly political end run around the Senate, the practice is neither unprecedented nor unconstitutional.
Bill Clinton made 139 recess appointments while in the White House; George W. Bush made 171; and Barack Obama made 32, according to the Congressional Research Service. In most of those cases, the Senate was controlled by the opposite party.
The U.S. Supreme Court in a 2014 decision, NLRB v. Noel Canning, gave the executive branch broad leeway to fill executive branch vacancies when the Senate is not in session, even for political purposes such as difficulty securing Senate confirmation.
N.B.
Presumably that includes, “difficulty securing Senate confirmation in a Senate controlled by the presidents own party.”
The court laid out guidelines for the process in Canning, noting that the Senate is in recess “when it says it is” and that the Constitution requires the recess to last 10 days or more for a president to be able to fill an open seat.
One significant wrinkle is that a vote of the House is also necessary to approve an adjournment of 10 days or more. The Constitution’s Adjournment’s Clause says neither chamber should be out of session “for more than three days” without consent of the other.
This requirement is not a problem for Present Trump as both Senate Majority Leader John Thune (who pledged to facilitate recess appointments) and House Speaker Mike Johnson will help get the Gaetz appointment through.
Any of Trump’s appointees successfully installed during a recess would have the same legal authority and pay as a Senate-confirmed appointee. That said, a recess appointment is temporary — expiring at the end of the Senate’s “next session” (effectively almost two years).
There’s no bar on successive recess appointments of the same or a different person to a particular position, though it remains a contested legal question whether an individual installed twice during recess could continue to be paid, according to Congressional Research Service.
Please pray for our nation and the wisdom and safety of our leaders.
Isn’t it a fact, that recess appointments have to be confirmed eventually by the Senate? In some time frame?
Isn’t it like a year from original appointment?
If a witness for the nominee makes the case that real reform is needed within the agencies then yes, they can be nominated. You have to first remind everyone of the horrible transgretions of each agency. Then you have to propose shaming those who stand by the transgressors. Do you want to protect those people who lied to congress and the American people. DO you want to protect those people who lied to courts. Do you want to protect those people who raided Mar-a-lago. Do you want to protect those people who lied about the Hunter Biden laptop and the Russian Hoax. All those people are still in the DOJ and FBI. We need to clean house. And the person to do it is not a former member of the swamp. You need an outsider. The swamp will fight bitterly not to take their medicine. They own the media. They own several congressman. They will do what they can. We need to warn them that shaming will happen to all those who fight for the swamp.
Sometimes, one year is all you need.
“Recess appointments are for one year.”
I believe they can be renewed.
The main issue is whether Thune will cooperate with the recess appointment strategy. If the Senate does the old pro forma sessions every three days or so they can effectively prevent the recesses appointment session from take effect. Obviously, Thune said he would allow for recess appointments. I’ll bet the obfucators will try to do the old run around.
Make them Czars like 0bammy did.
“when presidents name officials to jobs that normally need Senate confirmation”
The way they do it seems to go against the principles of our constitution.
Without the senate? Yes. He can
100 senators think he can’t. Their trained seals in the media (lawyer up, to quote SKB) believe he can’t
He’ll ether get them on board or get around them. Legally. Within the constitution as he always does
Watch
And if, after forging excellent relations with our friends and mortal enemies abroad, surging getting shot in the head by an assassin, winning the election, coattailing these bastards in the republican senate, the GOP majority senate is his obstacle that’s all anyone needs to know
Does the membership of the Senate have to vote to adjourn?
_______________________
I have heard that they need a majority vote of members to recess. The only way they would likely get that vote is if there are Republicans who would want cover to not have a public vote on the appointees and just let the recess appointments go through.
I think Trump is willing to fight this one out if he has to.
The Senate ploy of recessing and then having a lone guy there to go through the motions while the rest of the Senate is in recess is bogus.
The reason the Supreme Court put limits on recess appointments was because Clinton and Obama used the process as a way to circumvent Senate scrutiny to put some really nasty players into power with no vetting.
Now the tables have been turned and the Senate is playing games to prevent Trump from appointing ANY administration picks and block Trumps ability to govern.
My bet is that if Thune tries to block Trump, Trump will just make the recces appointment and claim that the Senate was in recess. Trump has the leverage.
Republicans are fully aware of how big the Democrat margin of fraud is so they realize just how big Trump's landslide actually was and how much support he has. .
Article II, Section 2, Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C3-1/ALDE_00001144/
Nice job. Thanks.
"his problem in the appointment of Republican Representative Matt Gaetz lies with at least 7 Republican Senators that simply cannot be relied upon to vote in the interests of the American people.
They stand as reminders that the work of cleaning out our ranks is just beginning.
We still have a lot of work to get rid of these worthless grifters.
As I recall, there were five acting Sec. Def. under Trump last. One was finally confirmed and he didn’t last followed by another acting. Similar happened after AG dip chip was fired and Matt Whitaker sat in until goober what’s his name was approved. Bill Barr.
Excerpt:
Article II Executive Branch
Section 3 Duties
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-2/section-3/
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