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RESEARCH NOTES
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Avoiding advice and consent: recess appointments and presidential power.
In July 2004, President Bush announced his intention to make twenty appointments during the congressional recess, including a new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For FTC chairman, Bush appointed Deborah Majoras. Majoras's nomination had been blocked in the Senate by Senator Ron Wyden, who claimed there was no evidence she would change FTC policies that benefit oil companies and hurt consumers. Wyden stated that he hoped "this undemocratic process for naming a new chair won't result in consumers being hammered with high gas prices again and again." This remark illustrates the controversy surrounding recess appointments: the president's power to nominate is checked by the Senate's power to reject confirmation, but recess appointments provide a constitutionally sanctioned means to circumvent the Senate's check on the executive.
One of the foundations of presidential power is the president's appointment power. Scholars of the institutional presidency have argued that political appointees are crucial in the ability of the president to achieve his goals. Through his appointment power, the president is in a position to create a corps of agents who will carry out presidential policy (Krause and Cohen 2000). Although the president nominates "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate," he also has the 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." Thus, the recess appointments clause provides the president the capacity to take unilateral action. (1) Even though the recess clause stems from days when senators could be out of touch for months as they traveled to and from their st...See the full content of this document
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