Bypassing Congress

Current Event

According to the New York Times News Service; January 08. 2012

Obama’s recess appointments ignore Senate role, experts say

WASHINGTON — To many Republicans and some constitutional scholars, President Barack Obama’s decision last week to ignore a sitting Senate and sidestep the confirmation process for several appointees risked nothing short of an end to the Senate’s role of providing advice and consent on presidential appointments.

Senate Republicans had been using procedural rules and filibusters to block or delay the confirmation of nearly 200 nominations, leaving vital positions vacant and neutralizing agencies they did not like. That compelled Obama to escalate matters further on Wednesday, making recess appointments even though the Senate was technically not in recess.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, began using pro forma sessions, lasting just seconds, in late 2007 to keep the Senate nominally in session and prevent President George W. Bush from making recess appointments.

Republicans have responded with stalling tactics that have left seventy-four nominees pending consideration on the Senate floor and an additional 107 bottled up in committees, many of them for economic posts or to run initiatives that Republicans fiercely oppose.

On Wednesday, Obama went where Bush had declined to go. He invoked his constitutional right to recess appointments to install four nominees — the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, and three members of the National Labor Relations Board — effectively calling the pro forma Senate session illegitimate.

Republicans, lawyers and parliamentary experts say the move, if it survives legal challenges, could herald an end to the Senate’s constitutionally guaranteed right to advice and consent. Eric Ueland, who was chief of staff to former Sen. Bill Frist, said that using Obama’s logic, presidents could make recess appointments when the Senate chamber for as little as a night or a weekend.

“If his position is ever upheld, it gives any president of any party at any time the undiluted power of naming any person to any position in the federal government,” Ueland said.

The White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, said that such assertions were “belied by the Constitution, precedent and history.”

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The President vs. The Constitution

Founding Document

US Constitution; Article II; Section 2

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

We the People:

The Senate was not in recess.  This president is testing America’s resolve to enforce Constitutional limits on his power. Why haven’t our Congressmen and Congresswomen taken action to enforce the Constitution through checks and balances?  Why don’t you call yours and ask?

For US House of Representatives, go to http://www.house.gov/

For US Senate, go to http://www.senate.gov/