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RECESS APPOINTMENTS
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.Updated
Monday, May 03, 2010 04:50 PM
New -
Take a look at the
United States Senate Page on the history of nominations and appointments.
The history of Recess Appointments through the entire history of the country is
there. 5-3-10
The "Recess Appointment" controversy has excited anger since
the Constitution was ratified more than 200 years ago. The practical impact has
always been to dilute the power of the United States Senate to totally block
Presidential Appointments. This is an important part of the Checks and Balances
built into our government. The President could operate the government totally on
recess appointments if necessary, although it would surely be politically
unpopular. Both parties use the Advice and Consent power to slow down, or
prevent Presidential Appointments. Needless to say it irritates a sitting
President, but is an important check on his powers. Opposing confirmation has
prevented many bad appointments - including the last two TSA nominations which
both turned out to have had improper conduct in prior relationships with the
government. 04-01-10
President Makes
Recess Appointments
WASHINGTON –After facing months of Republican obstruction to
administration nominees, President Obama announced his intent to recess appoint
fifteen nominees to fill critical administration posts that have been left
vacant, including key positions on the economic team and on boards that have
been left with vacancies for months.
“The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my
nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in
the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of
the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an
interim basis,” said President Barack Obama. “Most of the men and women whose
appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months
ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate. At a time of economic emergency, two
top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six
months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic
functioning of government.”
Following their appointment, these nominees will remain in the Senate for
confirmation.
Obama Administration appointees have faced an unprecedented level of obstruction
in the Senate.
President Obama currently has a total of 217 nominees pending before the Senate.
These nominees have been pending for an average of 101 days, including 34
nominees pending for more than 6 months.
The 15 nominees President Obama intends to recess appoint have been pending for
an average of 214 days or 7 months for a total of 3204 days or almost 9 years.
President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency,
but he was not facing the same level of obstruction. At this time in 2002,
President Bush had only 5 nominees pending on the floor. By contrast, President
Obama has 77 nominees currently pending on the floor, 58 of whom have been
waiting for over two weeks and 44 of those have been waiting more than a month.
The President announced his intention to recess appoint the following nominees:
Jeffrey Goldstein: Nominee for Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Department
of the Treasury
Jeffrey Goldstein is a former Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman LLC, a
private equity investment firm with offices in San Francisco, New York and
London. Mr. Goldstein served at the World Bank from 1999 to 2004, where he
served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. He oversaw the Bank's
work with its client countries in strengthening financial and capital market
systems. Mr. Goldstein was the Bank's point person on the International
Development Association (IDA). He also helped lead the Bank's relationship with
the G-8 countries. As Chief Financial Officer, he was responsible for the Bank's
financial operations and budget. He was the Bank's representative on the
Financial Stability Forum and on the International Monetary Fund's Capital
Markets Consultative Group and Chairman of the Pension Finance Committee. Prior
to joining the World Bank, Mr. Goldstein was Co-Chairman of BT Wolfensohn and a
member of the Bankers Trust Company Management Committee. He held senior
management positions and worked with BT Wolfensohn and its predecessor, James D.
Wolfensohn Incorporated, for more than 15 years. Early in his career, Mr.
Goldstein taught economics at Princeton University and worked at the Brookings
Institution and the U. S. Department of the Treasury. Mr. Goldstein received his
Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in economics from Yale University. He received his B.A.
with honors in economics from Vassar College (Phi Beta Kappa) and attended the
London School of Economics. Mr. Goldstein is a member of the Board of LPL
Holdings Inc., AlixPartners LLP and Grosvenor Capital Management and the Board
of Trustees of the International Center for Research on Women. He is also on the
Board of Trustees of Vassar College and is Chairman of the Vassar College
Investments Committee. He is also a member of the Brookings Institution Global
Leadership Council, The London School of Economics North American Advisory Board
and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Michael F. Mundaca: Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Department
of the Treasury
Michael F. Mundaca currently is Senior Advisor for Policy within the Treasury
Department's Office of Tax Policy and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax
Policy. Mr. Mundaca served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton
Administration and returned to the Treasury Department in 2007, as the Deputy
Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs. Before that appointment, he
was a partner for five years in the International Tax Services group of Ernst &
Young's National Tax Department, in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on
cross-border planning and structuring, including especially tax treaty issues,
and on international legislative and regulatory monitoring and consulting.
Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Mundaca served for over five years in
Treasury's Office of the International Tax Counsel, leaving as the Deputy
International Tax Counsel. He was also Treasury's Senior Advisor on Electronic
Commerce. Prior to that first stint in Treasury, he was an associate at Sullivan
& Cromwell, a law firm in New York. Mr. Mundaca has been an adjunct professor at
the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a seminar on tax treaties. Mr.
Mundaca received a B.A. in philosophy and in physics from Columbia University,
in 1986, and an M.A.in philosophy from the University of Chicago, in 1988. He
received a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt
Hall), in 1992, where he was Senior Executive Editor of The California Law
Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He also has an LL.M., in taxation
(international tax specialization), from the University of Miami.
Eric L. Hirschhorn: Nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Export
Administration and head of the Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of
Commerce
Eric Hirschhorn, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Winston & Strawn
LLP, long has been active in the areas of international law, litigation, and
professional responsibility. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export
Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce (1980-81), Mr. Hirschhorn
oversaw U.S. export controls for items having commercial as well as military
applications, antiboycott compliance, restraints on imports for national
security reasons, and the Department’s participation in the Committee on Foreign
Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Earlier, while a member of President
Jimmy Carter’s reorganization project staff (1977-80), he worked on reorganizing
the government’s international trade, public diplomacy, and foreign assistance
mechanisms. Before working in the Executive branch, Mr. Hirschhorn held several
congressional staff positions, was in private law practice in New York City, and
was a legal services lawyer. Mr. Hirschhorn has represented clients on a wide
range of commercial and regulatory matters since returning to private law
practice in 1981. He is Executive Secretary of the Industry Coalition on
Technology Transfer (ICOTT), a group whose industry participants are affected by
U.S. export control and embargo rules. He is the author of The Export Control
and Embargo Handbook, Second Edition, published in 2004, and numerous articles
on export controls, embargoes and related topics. He chairs the D.C. Bar Rules
of Professional Conduct Review Committee and is a member (and former chair) of
the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee. He also is a member of the New York City
Bar Association and the Thurgood Marshall American Inn of Court. Mr. Hirschhorn
received his B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and a J.D. degree from
Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Michael Punke: Nominee for Deputy Trade Representative - Geneva, Office of the
United States Trade Representative
Michael Punke has worked in the field of international trade law and policy for
two decades. From 1995 to 1996, Punke served as Senior Policy Advisor at the
Office of the United States Trade Representative. There, he advised the USTR on
issues ranging from agricultural trade to intellectual property protection. From
1993 to 1995, Punke served at the White House as Director for International
Economic Affairs with a joint appointment to the National Security Council and
the National Economic Council. His responsibilities included assisting in the
management of the interagency process. From 1991 to 1992, Punke was
International Trade Counsel to Senator Max Baucus, then Chairman of the Finance
Committee’s International Trade Subcommittee. Punke has also worked on
international trade issues from the private sector, including as a partner at
the Washington, D.C., office of Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw. From 2003 to 2009,
Punke advised clients on trade issues through out of Missoula, Montana. Since
January 2010, Punke has served as a Consultant to the U.S. Trade Representative.
He also has worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana and as a
writer, authoring a novel, two books of nonfiction, and two screenplays. Punke
is a graduate of George Washington University and Cornell Law School, where he
was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell International Law Journal.
Francisco "Frank" J. Sánchez: Nominee for Under Secretary for International
Trade, Department of Commerce
Francisco J. Sánchez currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke on international trade issues. He served as a Policy Advisor on Latin
America to the Obama For America campaign. He was also the Chairman of the
campaign's National Hispanic Leadership Council. In 1999, Sanchez became a
Special Assistant to President Clinton, working in the Office of the Special
Envoy for the Americas. While at the White House, Sanchez worked with the
National Security Council, the State Department and the U.S. Trade
Representative. Clinton later appointed Sánchez as U.S. Assistant Secretary of
Transportation where he developed aviation policy and oversaw international
negotiations. Prior to his work in the federal government, Sánchez practiced
corporate and administrative law with the firm of Steel, Hector and Davis in
Miami, Florida. Before practicing law, he served in the administration of former
Florida Governor (and later U.S. Senator) Bob Graham, as the first director of
the state’s Caribbean Basin Initiative Program. For the last 15 years, Sanchez
has worked with several consulting companies on projects involving complex
transactions, labor-management negotiations, litigation settlement, negotiation
strategy, alliance management, facilitation and training, most recently as a
partner with CM Partners. Among his public-sector engagements, Sánchez headed a
team in Medellín, Colombia as part of a "Teaching Tolerance" program. He also
advised the president of Ecuador in negotiations to settle the 56-year-old
border dispute with Peru. He is a contributing author to Negociación 2000, a
collection of essays on negotiation published by McGraw-Hill. A Florida native,
Mr. Sánchez attended the University of Florida, received his undergraduate and
law degrees from Florida State University and holds a master’s degree in public
administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Islam A. Siddiqui: Nominee for Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative
Islam A. Siddiqui is currently Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs
at CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international
trade issues related to crop protection chemicals. Previously, Dr. Siddiqui also
served as CropLife America’s Vice President for agricultural biotechnology and
trade. From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Siddiqui served in various capacities in the
Clinton Administration at U.S. Department of Agriculture as Under Secretary for
Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Senior Trade Advisor to Secretary Dan
Glickman and Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. As a
result, he worked closely with the USTR and represented USDA in bilateral,
regional and multi-lateral agricultural trade negotiations. Since 2004, Dr.
Siddiqui has also served on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Industry Trade
Advisory Committee on Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Health/Science Products &
Services, which advises the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and USTR on international
trade issues related to these sectors. Between 2001 and 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was
appointed as Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS), where he focused on agricultural biotechnology and food security
issues. Before joining USDA, Dr. Siddiqui spent 28 years with the California
Department of Food and Agriculture. He received a B.S. degree in plant
protection from Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University in Pantnagar, India, as
well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in plant pathology, both from the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Alan D. Bersin: Nominee for Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
Department of Homeland Security
Alan Bersin was appointed by Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano in April,
2009 as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative
for Border Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In that
capacity, he serves as the Secretary's lead representative on Border Affairs and
Mexico, for developing DHS strategy regarding security, immigration, narcotics,
and trade matters affecting Mexico and for coordinating the Secretary's security
initiatives on the nation's borders. Prior to his current service, Bersin served
as Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. Previously, Mr.
Bersin served as California’s Secretary of Education between July 2005 and
December 2006 in the Administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Between
1998 and 2005, he served as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego and
from 2000 to 2003 served as a member and then Chairman of the California
Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Prior to becoming the leader of the
nation’s eighth largest urban school district, he was appointed by President
Bill Clinton as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of
California and confirmed in that capacity by the U.S. Senate. Mr. Bersin served
as U.S. Attorney for nearly five years and as the Attorney General’s Southwest
Border Representative responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement on
the border from South Texas to Southern California. Mr. Bersin previously was a
senior partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Mr. Bersin
received his A.B. in Government from Harvard University (magna cum laude) and
attended Balliol College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1974, he
received his J.D. degree from the Yale Law School.:
Jill Long Thompson: Nominee for Member, Farm Credit Administration Board
Jill Long Thompson is a former Member of the United States House of
Representatives and the former Under Secretary for Rural Development at the
United States Department of Agriculture. She also served as Chief Executive
Officer and Senior Fellow at The National Center for Food and Agricultural
Policy, a not-for-profit, non-advocacy research and policy organization. She is
the first and only woman to be nominated by a major party to run for Governor in
Indiana, as well as the first and only Hoosier woman to be nominated by a major
party to run for the United States Senate. Long Thompson joined the faculty at
Valparaiso University in 1981 and in 1983 was elected to the City Council. In
1989 Long Thompson was elected to represent Northeast Indiana in Congress. She
went on to serve three terms in the House, where she was a member of the
Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She introduced one
of the nation’s first pieces of legislation banning Members of Congress from
accepting gifts and expanding the disclosure requirements for lobbying
activities. After leaving Congress, Long Thompson was appointed by President
Bill Clinton to serve as the Under Secretary for Rural Development at the United
States Department of Agriculture. In her five years at USDA, she oversaw a $10
billion annual budget and 7,000 employees while managing a number of programs
that provide services to the underserved areas of rural America. Long Thompson
earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Valparaiso University and an
M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Business from the Kelley School at Indiana University.
Rafael Borras: Nominee for Under Secretary for Management , Department of
Homeland Security
Rafael Borras currently serves as a Vice President, Construction Services, for
the Mid-Atlantic Region with URS Corporation, a global engineering services
firm. Prior to joining the URS, Mr. Borras served as the Regional Administrator
for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S. General Services Administration. Prior
to serving in this position, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Borras also served as
Deputy City Manager in the City of Hartford, Connecticut, where he was
responsible for the departments of finance, police, fire, code enforcement,
information technology, purchasing, budget, and human relations. Mr. Borras
began his public sector career with Metropolitan Dade County Government, serving
in the Office of the County Administrator as an administrative officer.
Craig Becker: Nominee for Board Member, National Labor Relations Board
Craig Becker currently serves as Associate General Counsel to both the Service
Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of
Industrial Organizations. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1978
and received his J.D. in 1981 from Yale Law School where he was an Editor of the
Yale Law Journal. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay,
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. For
the past 27 years, he has practiced and taught labor law. He was a Professor of
Law at the UCLA School of Law between 1989 and 1994 and has also taught at the
University of Chicago and Georgetown Law Schools. He has published numerous
articles on labor and employment law in scholarly journals, including the
Harvard Law Review and Chicago Law Review, and has argued labor and employment
cases in virtually every federal court of appeals and before the United States
Supreme Court.
Mark Pearce: Nominee for Board Member, National Labor Relations Board
Mark Gaston Pearce has been a labor lawyer for his entire career. He is one of
the founding partners of the Buffalo, New York law firm of Creighton, Pearce,
Johnsen & Giroux where he practices union side labor and employment law before
state and federal courts and agencies including the N.Y.S. Public Employment
Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of
Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board. Pearce in 2008 was appointed by
the NYS Governor to serve as a Board Member on the New York State Industrial
Board of Appeals, an independent quasi-judicial agency responsible for review of
certain rulings and compliance orders of the NYS Department of Labor in matters
including wage and hour law. Pearce has taught several courses in the labor
studies program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations
Extension. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Prior
to 2002, Pearce practiced union side labor law and employment law at Lipsitz,
Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria LLP. From 1979 to 1994, he was an
attorney and District Trial Specialist for the NLRB in Buffalo, NY. Pearce
received his J.D. from State University of New York, and his B.A. from Cornell
University.
Jacqueline A. Berrien, Nominee for Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Ms. Berrien has served as Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund (LDF) since September 2004. In that position, she assists
with the direction and implementation of LDF’s national legal advocacy and
scholarship programs. Ms. Berrien served from 2001 to 2004 as a Program Officer
in the Ford Foundation’s Peace and Social Justice Program, where she
administered more than $13 million of grants to promote greater political
participation by underrepresented groups and remove barriers to civic
engagement. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ms. Berrien was an Assistant
Counsel with LDF and directed the Fund’s voting rights and political
participation work. For eight years before that, Ms. Berrien was a staff
attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil
Liberties Union. Berrien has also taught in trial advocacy programs at Fordham
and Harvard law schools and served on the adjunct faculty of New York Law
School. She began her legal career clerking for the Honorable U.W. Clemon, the
first African-American appointed to the U.S. District Court in Birmingham,
Alabama. Ms. Berrien is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she served as a
General Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She
received her Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors in Government from Oberlin
College and also completed a major in English.
Chai R. Feldblum: Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center
where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal
Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to
become legislative lawyers. Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to
the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, she
developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and
played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of
1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of
2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. As
Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance
flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers. Feldblum
clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun.
She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.
Victoria A. Lipnic: Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Victoria A. Lipnic is of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Seyfarth Shaw
LLP. Ms. Lipnic was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment
Standards from 2002 until 2009. In addition to her work with the Department of
Labor, Ms. Lipnic’s experience in Washington, D.C. includes service as Workforce
Policy Counsel to the Republican members of the Education and Labor Committee in
the U.S. House of Representatives. Before her work for Congress, Ms. Lipnic
acted as in-house counsel for labor and employment matters to the U.S. Postal
Service for six years. She also served as a special assistant for business
liaison to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the Honorable Malcolm Baldrige. She
earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from Allegheny
College and a Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law.
P. David Lopez: Nominee for General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
David Lopez has served at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for
13 years in the field and at headquarters. He began at the EEOC in 1994 as a
Special Assistant to Commissioner Casellas. Currently, Mr. Lopez is a
Supervisory Trial Attorney with the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office. During his
tenure, Mr. Lopez has successfully tried several cases on behalf of the EEOC in
a wide variety of legal bases. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Lopez served
at the Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, at the U.S.
Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1994. From 1988 to 1991,
he was an Associate with Spiegel and McDiarmid. Mr. Lopez received a Juris
Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988 and a Bachelor of Science in
Political Science from Arizona State University in 1985, magna cum laude.
The
President
Threatens
Recess
Appointments
Senator
Hatch,
(R-UT)
has
warned
the
President
not
to
use
"recess
appointment"
during
current
recess
to
appoint
a
member
of
National
Labor
Relations
Board.
George
Bush
used
that
route
to
appoint
five
pro-business
lawyers
to
NLRB
during
his
term.
Does
"Good
for
the
Goose,
Good
for
the
Gander"
apply
here?
Obama
is
likely
to
make
this
NLRB
appointment
in
a
few
days.
01-11-10
See
Recess
Appointments.
President
Obama
has
had
it
with
Senator's
holds.
He
called
them
"obstructionist"
and
"theater"
when
meeting
the
press
on
Tuesday.
He
said
pass
them
or
it
is
time
for
him
to
make
Recess
Appointments
when
the
Senate
retires
at
the
end
of
the
week
for
the
President's
Day
recess.
See
Details
on
Recess
Appointments
here.
02-10-10
The United States Senate formally adjourned today after months of proforma
sessions during recess periods to block the Bush administration from making
recess appointments. The dispute between the Senate and the President
became absolute during this period and no recess appointments were successfully
made by the President. See this
Washington Post story 1-2-09.
Blocking the President: Majority
Leader Reid apparently had an understanding with Bush to make prompt nominations
of Democrats to various agencies where the leadership is divided between the
parties. Reid said he would move nominations along in the Senate - which
he says he did with the AG Mukasey nomination. He further suggests that
the President hasn't kept his part of this deal. His problem: How to
handle the impending Thanksgiving recess of the Congress, and then the
subsequent Christmas recess until early January?
Solution:
Majority Leader Reid did not recess the Senate and has scheduled meetings of
that body every 3rd or 4th day with two or more Senators present, and of course,
they will immediately adjourn until the next meeting. In this situation,
under Senate rules, the Senate will not be recessed in a format that would allow
the President to make a recess appointment.
Behind this issue: Throughout
this Bush administration there has been a political fight between the White
House and the Senate - even during the GOP control of the Senate. The GOP
has pitched the policy that the President has a superior power in these things -
directly in opposition to the Constitution of the United States and in
particular to the idea of the Advice and Consent required on many Executive
Appointments. There are a number of calculated strategies on the part of
the White House based on the Bush Administration frustrations with the shared
power philosophies of the United States through its entire Constitutional
history. These are raw power moves to eliminate Senate participation in
the appointment process. The current struggle in reality is an application
of the "checks and balances" doctrines built into the United States
government. 11 18 07
The Constitution of the United
States provides for Recess Appointments by the President at times when the
Senate is away from its public business - in Recess.
Historical perspective about
the Constitution reminds us that the young United States was a rural nation with
a Congress that met only briefly with long recesses in each Session. That
led to the practical problem of vacant appointments for long periods when there
was no opportunity for confirmation by the Senate.
The President has the authority
under the Constitution to fill a vacant position that requires Senate
confirmation without submitting the nominee to the Senate and waiting for the
Senate to confirm or reject. That nominee holds the position with a recess
appointment until the end of the Senate session in which he was appointed -
without confirmation. Such a nominee can continue in that position after
the next Senate Session begins, but must serve without direct or indirect
compensation. Until that point - the nominee has all the rights,
privileges - and compensation - of a confirmed appointment.
The Recess Appointment has a
huge potential for controversy. To be fair, it is not a widely used
process, and much of the time for the purpose it was intended to serve.
Controversy develops - raging controversy develops - when a President makes an
appointment fully intending to avoid Senate inspection and confirmation of the
nominee. The Senate often is angry - particularly in situations where the
nominee has already been rejected by the Senate or somehow been prevented from
taking office during the Senate considerations. Interest groups on both
sides of the appointment are quick to be heard in these situations.
Presidents have been generally
consistent in using the Recess Appointments over the life of the United
States. While many have been controversial - may have been routine.
Even so - the controversy involved has been an issue throughout the experience
of the Presidency - and there has been extensive litigation about how it is
supposed to be used. One issue is what constitutes recess - does a
weekend off for the Senate constitute a Recess for the purposes of the
Constitutional provision - answer seems to be "yes.".
.
Recess Appointments as a Political Issue:
Recess appointments rarely become much of a national political issue. The
President's recess appointments of John Bolton to the UN Ambassadorship and now
the Fox recess appointment to Belgium have given Democrats a powerful corruption
issue. Combined with the United States Attorney issues, political
appointments are becoming a disaster for the Administration. What is
genuinely peculiar about this situations is that the President has an absolute
legal right to deal with the appointments as he has, but has developed a nearly
congenital capacity to mismanage both practices. His political opponents
in both parties and in the public are using both situations to weaken the White
House on Iraq and other subjects. This is also triggering the movement of
power within the Republican Party back to the conservative politicos and away
from the White House. The Lame Duck Presidency is moving to a Wounded and
Dead-Duck Presidents quickly.
9 10 07
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