Recess Appointments Made by President Barack Obama

Congressional Research Service ^ | 9/7/2017 | Henry B. Hogue

[fruser1]

The Senate did not use the pro forma session practices during or after the first session of the 111th Congress.39

Toward the end of the second session, however, the Senate structured its 2010 pre-election break as a series of shorter recesses separated by pro forma sessions. In this case, the use of the practice reportedly stemmed from a lack of agreement between the Senate majority leader and the Senate minority leader regarding the disposition of pending nominations over the break.40

...

39 When the practice under discussion here was first used, during the 110th Congress, Congress and the White House were controlled by different parties. During the 111th Congress, when the practice was not used, the two institutions were controlled by the same party. During the 112th and 113th Congresses, the Senate and the White House were controlled by one party, and the House was controlled by the other. During the 114th Congress, the arrangements returned to those under the 110th Congress: the White House and Congress were controlled by different parties.

40 Brian Friel, “Senate to Block Recess Appointments,” CQ Today Online News, September 29, 2010, available at http://www.cq.com/doc/news-3743961?10&search=AwSIdNKK.

[fruser1]

In a nutshell, the Pro Forma bit was never used until Bush 2 towards the end of his term.

The first Congress Obama had to deal with (both being Dem run at the time) did not use it until the end of his second year in office.

Nevertheless, Obama made no recess appointments in his first year. In his second he did 28.

List of appointments on page 9 of the doc.

I don't know if the reason for no recess appointments in the first year was because they just all got approved or what.

[DesertRhino]

Mitch McConnell put the Senate in recess while Obama was in office to allow Obama to make appointments.
For Trump, from his own party, he refused. Now Thune is doing the same thing.

[faithhopecharity]

So Obama got to select his own people whereas the GOP-e “leadership” is blocking Trump from being allowed to select people he wants to assist him

Gotta hand it to the GOP-e, they know how to be as worthless as teats on a boar.