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'Progress can't be made if the president seeks controversial recess appointments.' Senate majority leader, Democrat of Nevada |
WASHINGTON - This week, as much of the nation enjoys a light schedule and the House of Representatives is in recess, the Senate will open for business twice and each time quickly close. It will do the same next week.
The expected "faux" sessions will be part of a rare gambit by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to prevent President Bush from making any "recess appointments," used by presidents when a nomination is in trouble in the Senate.
"It's unfortunate that we have to do this but we couldn't run the risk of the administration ramming through some of their highly controversial appointments while we were in recess," explained Jim Manley, Reid's press secretary.
The Constitution grants the president authority to fill high-level positions without the customary Senate confirmation whenever the Senate is in recess. Historically, some recess appointments eventually have won the Senate's blessings, including President Theodore Roosevelt's decision in 1902 to name Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to the Supreme Court.
But many presidents - including Bush and President Clinton - have used that power to appoint judges and other officials who faced stiff opposition, and sometimes stalled nominations, on Capitol Hill.
But this year, amid rumors that Bush might use the recess to appoint James Holsinger as surgeon general, Reid played the procedural card of keeping the Senate technically in session.
Holsinger, a professor from the University of Kentucky's College of Public Health, has been criticized by gay rights groups and public health specialists for a paper he wrote 16 years ago that characterized gay sex as unnatural and unhealthy. At a Senate hearing in July, he denied any antigay bias. But Senate Democrats have refused to bring up Holsinger's nomination.
If Bush were able to use a recess appointment to install Holsinger as surgeon general, he would be able to remain in that office until the end of Bush's term.
The practice of recess appointments has long been controversial.
In 2005, Bush appointed John Bolton to be US ambassador to the United Nations during a congressional recess, circumventing a Democratic filibuster of Bolton's nomination and sending him to New York. Clinton angered Republicans with his recess appointment of James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg, making Hormel the country's first openly gay ambassador.
But perhaps the most controversial recess appointment came this spring. Bush enraged Senate Democrats during Easter break by filling the vacant ambassadorship to Belgium with Sam Fox, who during the 2004 presidential campaign helped bankroll the controversial attacks by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the military record of Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry.
Following that, Reid negotiated an agreement with the White House to avoid any appointments during the August break.
But now, with a two-week Thanksgiving recess looming, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. Reid asked a few Democratic senators who plan to be close to the capital during the holidays - Jim Webb of Virginia, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Jack Reed of Rhode Island - to gavel open and shut the Senate for two days each week.
During negotiations with the White House, Reid charged that the president had delayed appointing Democrats to federal boards such as the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. By law, a number of seats on these commissions are reserved for Democrats and Republicans.
"With the Thanksgiving break looming, the administration informed me that they would make several recess appointments. I indicated I would be willing to confirm various appointments if the administration would agree to move on Democratic appointments," Reid said in a statement inserted into Friday's Congressional Record. "I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me halfway," said Reid, adding, "Progress can't be made if the president seeks controversial recess appointments and fails to make Democratic appointments to important commissions."
The White House responded Saturday to the majority leader's move.
"Since he intends to bring the Senate in every three days, we encourage him to put that time to good use and schedule confirmation hearings for our nominees," spokesman Trey Bohn said Saturday.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
