They got that covered. The newly elected Majority Leader has agreed that Trump can make recess appointments, even if the Senate isn’t literally out-of-town. Maybe it’s a nighttime thing?
Note: for the Senate to be “In session”, they had to have a senator of the Majority Party to appear on the podium each day, ask if there’s “any business”, then “having heard none”, they gavel a “suspension” until the same time the next day. Since the DEMs have a lot of Senators within short driving distance in the Northeast, it’s fairly easy to staff this important position.
The GOP has more Senators in the rural states outside of the DC area, I’m guessing that a newly elected junior Senator like John Curtis of Utah will get the inconvenient task of staying in DC during his vacation.
That was what the opposition did, some 20 years ago, when recess appointments became routine: no more vacations. Someone hung around, and kept the light on the top of the dome lit, so the POTUS could not short-circuit the Constitutional process.
…for those who never noticed, this light is on when Congress is in session.
Yes. But it would be unusual if the Majority Party having the same affiliation as the President was doing recess appointments because of a few wayward members in their caucus voting against the Party line. That’s what is being anticipated here.
That depends on when you start using the genus H*mo (stupid filter). Deciding where to apply genus and species names in an evolutionary lineage is tricky since it is a history of gradual change. One might also have to clarify whether you meant exclusively, primarily, or occasionally on hind legs. But, generally yes, we have been primarily bipedal for a large part of our evolutionary history.
For the last few administrations, the Senate has deliberately avoided going into recess for long enough to trigger that clause. They used to hold pro forma sessions every three days - even when everyone else was home for vacation, a Senator would go to the chamber, gavel it in, and then immediately close it out. After Canning held that anything less than ten days was presumptively too short to trigger the recess appointment power, they have more time between the pro forma sessions, but they still do them.
Trump wants the Senate to certainly stop doing the pro forma sessions, and it sounds like he wants them to deliberately go into a recess so that he can make recess appointments.
This is going to be fun to watch. Some battles will be won. This might. But he is herding cats. He is not equipped.
Moving Gaetz out of the house will help in that chamber. LOL
The appointment to Sec of Defense is not on. There needs to be a sacrificial lamb. The Senate is the wild card. Respectable before taking a fall. Rinse and repeat.
I heard an opinion voiced, in the last day or two, that some nominees are so sketchy they do not want any hearings on their nominations at all, due to the sort of things that will be questioned. Better to cover everything up with a recess appointment. Is it possible to bypass the hearings and take nominations directly to the floor?
I don’t think so. I don’t think there is the privileged motion like the House has. Regardless, if enough Senators don’t want someone, they have the power to keep a recess appointment from happening and it isn’t worth the political capital to install a crony and anger the small amount of Reps you need to get everything else passed in the Senate.
