What are recess appointments? What to know about Trump’s plans for the Senate

President-elect Donald Trump has called on the next Senate majority leader to allow recess appointments — a centuries-old practice that permits the president to temporarily bypass Congress.

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” he wrote in a Nov. 10 post on Truth Social.

“We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” Trump, who won a resounding victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, added.

Soon after this, multiple contenders for the majority leader position — including Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune — signaled their openness to allowing recess appointments.

Senate Republicans are scheduled to meet Nov. 13 to decide via secret ballot who will replace Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell as the next GOP leader in the Senate, which flipped from Democratic to Republican control in the election.

What exactly are recess appointments?

One of the chief responsibilities of the president is to make appointments across the federal government — including to cabinet-level positions.

Each new president makes roughly 4,000 political appointments, about 30% of which need Senate confirmation, according to the Center for Presidential Transition.

This is where recess appointments come into play. They grant the president the ability to temporarily appoint officials without Senate approval, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.

They are outlined in the Constitution’s Recess Appointment Clause, which states that “the president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate.”

The framers of the Constitution may have included the clause to allow the government to continue functioning when the Senate was in recess — which, during the early years of the republic, was more than half the year.

However, recess appointments have also been used for political reasons, including to install unpopular officials who might not be confirmed by the Senate, according to the report.

These appointments come with a time limit, though.

“When the Senate returns, the person must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session,” Charles Cameron, a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, told McClatchy News.

If they are not confirmed by the Senate, the president has an option to issue another temporary appointment.

“Yes, the same person could serve again,” Richard Semiatin, an emeritus professor of government at American University, told McClatchy News.

Alternatively, the president could allow the position to remain vacant — in which case the highest ranking official in the department or agency would become “the acting head,” Semiatin said.

History of recess appointments

Many presidents throughout history have used recess appointments to fill vacancies in government — including at the highest rungs of power.

“The most famous case of a recess appointment was when President Andrew Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1867, and replaced him temporarily (i.e., recess appointment) with Ulysses S. Grant as interim Secretary of War,” Semiatin said.

Similarly, in September 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court through a recess appointment, Cameron said. He was confirmed by the Senate five months later.

Twenty-first century presidents have also made numerous recess appointments.

President George W. Bush made 171, and, as of February 2015, President Barack Obama had made 32, according to CRS.

However, in recent years, actions have been taken to reduce the president’s ability to circumvent Congress in making appointments.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that recess appointments can only be made when the Senate is in recess for periods of 10 days or longer.

Congress has also started entering pro-forma sessions, which are short meetings intended to avoid recess, according to CRS. Additionally, even if the Senate wants to go on recess, it can be blocked from doing so by the House, and vice versa.

In 2020, Trump tried using a recess appointment to fill the role of attorney general, but the Senate blocked his efforts, according to CNN.

But now, with the GOP winning a majority in the Senate and contenders for majority leader signaling their support for recess appointments, things could be changing.

“Republican control of the Senate thus gives Trump the chance to use recess appointments in radically new way — basically, standing up a new government in one fell swoop, but only if the Senate is willing to give him carte blanche in filling appointments as he wishes for two years,” Cameron said.

“This is a pretty jaw dropping innovation, and very clever,” Cameron concluded. “Let’s see what happens.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 2:25 PM with the headline "What are recess appointments? What to know about Trump’s plans for the Senate."