WASHINGTON — The mood in Congress among Republicans following Donald Trump’s announcement of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his pick for attorney general was best summed up by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho): “Are you shittin’ me?”
Several Republicans on Wednesday said they were “shocked” and skeptical that the Senate would approve Gaetz next year — but there are rumblings on Capitol Hill and among conservatives that Trump is not “shittin’” them and would exercise unprecedented powers to go around the Senate and install his controversial pick anyway.
The Constitution gives the president limited authority to make appointments when Congress is not in session, and it also gives him the power to adjourn the House and Senate, though no president has ever done so in order to staff his administration.
Trump threatened to adjourn Congress to make appointments toward the end of his first term, and some fear he will actually follow through on the scheme in his second term. And he has already called for the Senate to let him make recess appointments so Democrats can’t slow down the confirmation process.
“This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. “We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!”
There’s some indication the Senate won’t cooperate with Trump’s demands that Congress get out of his way. Asked about recess appointments on Wednesday, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who had just beaten out Trump’s choice of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) for the position, didn’t outright say whether he would support or oppose Trump sidestepping the Senate, but suggested he’d prefer the chamber to maintain its role in confirming appointments.
“What we’re going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions so they can implement his agenda. How that happens remains to be seen,” Thune said. “Obviously, we want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings like they typically do.”
So Trump’s recess appointment plot would need to be deployed against Senate Republicans if he thinks they would be unwilling to approve his nominees. How would it work? First of all, it’s possible the mere threat will cause Senate Republicans to buckle and back Gaetz. Plenty of them already do.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said Trump deserved to get his chosen team for his administration.
“It’s not [for] us to determine that,” he said on Fox News. “This is the last chance we’re going to have at saving this country. If you want to get in the way, fine, but we’re going to try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you do that.”
Other Republicans suggested a recess appointment scenario would only come about as a result of Democratic obstruction.
“I think you get into a recess scenario where they grind the Senate to a halt and are refusing to allow regular order move forward and confirm folks,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the judiciary committee, told HuffPost. “If you really want to shut down the Senate, it’s not that hard to do. And I would just advise against that to my colleagues.”
Hawley and other Republicans said they weren’t intimately familiar with the president’s never-used-before power to adjourn Congress himself.
“I’ve heard that theory just now, and I’ve not researched that. I’ve not heard of it before, so I’ll have to go back and look at that,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters. . . Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states that “in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, [the president] may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.” The president could, therefore, exercise this power to adjourn both chambers of Congress if one chamber votes to recess while the other does not.
While no president has done it before, there is Supreme Court precedent stating that this power does, in fact, exist. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in NLRB v. Canning that presidents do have the power to make recess appointments, but that they cannot do so during short Senate breaks or when the Senate holds pro forma sessions. The majority opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by the liberal justices and Justice Anthony Kennedy included one line addressing this very scenario: “The Constitution also gives the President (if he has enough allies in Congress) a way to force a recess.” The line included a citation to the constitutional provision above. . .
Source (huffpost.com)
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