Senate Republicans continue to block President Obama's nominees to executive agencies and he responded recently by making recess appointments to two of them. The trouble is, Congress is technically still in session. It's not actually doing anything - it is in pro forma session, which the Senate glossary defines as:
A brief meeting (sometimes only several seconds) of the Senate in which no business is conducted. It is held usually to satisfy the constitutional obligation that neither chamber can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other.
Republicans are simply trying to make it impossible for two agencies they do not care for - the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Board - from conducting business. The Constitution allows for the President to make appointments over the objections - or the inactivity - of Congress, but as with many things in the Constitution, it does not define the key term, in this case "recess."
Republicans, backed by business groups that also do not care for these agencies, are crying foul, claiming that Obama is exceeding his authority, and promise to contest this activity in court. The head of the executive branch should not be able to say when the legislature is and is not in session. But Obama's point is that the legislature is preventing the executive from carrying out its constitutional responsibility to execute the laws of the nation.
Here are more full and interesting takes on this issue:
- Jonathan Bernstein, and here.
- Ezra Klein (who wonders why Obama didn't make 200 rather than 4).
- Slate offers some history of the conflict over recess appointment.
