If the Senate is in recess until after the election, then what in the world was Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts doing in the chamber this morning, gavel in hand?
Essentially, to stop President Barack Obama, or any president, from making temporary appointments of judges or others without the Senate’s approval.
It took all of a minute, gavel to gavel, for Roberts to begin and end a “pro-forma” session so that technically, the Senate is not adjourned, and Obama cannot appoint, for example, Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Another senator will do the same thing every three days until the Senate actually returns for business on Nov. 15.
32 Recess appointments by Barack Obama
171 Recess appointments by George W. Bush
Article II of the U.S. Constitution grants the president power to make temporary appointments, called recess appointments, without Senate approval when the chamber is absent. Those appointments expire at the end of the current two-year term of Congress.
Both Democrats and Republicans have used pro-forma sessions to block such temporary appointments when the president is of the opposing party, particularly on judicial nominees.
Obama tested this power by making three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012. These appointments were unanimously struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2014, affirming the Senate’s right to block the president’s appointments.
Both Democrats and Republicans have used pro-forma sessions to block such temporary appointments when the president is of the opposing party, particularly on judicial nominees.
Interestingly, Roberts had signed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a Washington state canning company’s challenge to Obama’s recess appointments in the NLRB case.
According to the Congressional Research Service, Obama has made the fewest recess appointments of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, except for Gerald Ford. Obama’s 32 include the three ill-fated NLRB appointees.
Obama has made the fewest recess appointments of any president who since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, except for Gerald Ford.
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, who had a friendlier Republican Senate for four of his eight years in office, made 171 recess appointments. Even Bill Clinton, who had a Republican Senate for six of his eight years, made 140 recess appointments.
The champion of recess appointments? Ronald Reagan, who made 243. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were nearly tied, with 195 and 193, respectively.
Ford, in office for a little more than two years, made the fewest: 12.
Curtis Tate: 202-383-6018, @tatecurtis
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