Recess appointment
A recess appointment is a temporary appointment made by the President of the United States to fill a vacant federal position while the United States Senate is in recess.
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires the president to seek the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate when appointing individuals to serve as federal judges, ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries, and other executive branch positions. Excluding federal judges, there are over 1,300 executive branch positions that require Senate confirmation.[1] However, the constitution also gives the president 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."
The United States Supreme Court ruled in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning Company (2014) that a president can make recess appointments during the recesses between formal Senate sessions (inter-session) and recesses that take place during formal Senate sessions (intra-session). The court also ruled that a president can only make recess appointments during a Senate recess that is at least ten days in length, and that pro forma sessions, which are sessions where no business is expected to be conducted, qualify as in-session for the purposes of determining whether the chamber is in recess.[2] Article I, Section 5 of the U.S Constitution requires both the House and Senate must consent to adjourn in order for either chamber to hold a recess lasting more than three days.
Recess appointments are temporary, and last through the end of the Senate's next session unless the Senate votes to confirm the official and make the appointment permanent. So, for example, if a president makes an inter-session recess appointment, it would last about a year through the end of the upcoming session. If a president makes an intra-session recess appointment, it would last through the rest of the current session and through the end of the next session, meaning it could last as long as about two years.[3]
Ronald Reagan (R) made the most (240) recess appointments among presidents serving from 1981 to 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service.[4][3] During this time period, Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D) made no recess appointments because the Senate was never in recess for ten consecutive days during either Trump's first term or Biden's term in office. The Senate used pro forma sessions to stay constantly in session.[5]
This page provides additional information on the following topics:
Historical use of recess appointments
George Washington made the first recess appointments in U.S. history during the first-ever recess of the U.S. Senate, which took place from September 1789 to January 1790. Washington appointed three judges and one U.S. attorney during this time period. According to the National Archives, recess appointments, "allowed the President to temporarily place someone in office until the Senate had the chance to weigh in. In the early years of the Republic, this happened frequently as Congress was usually in session for less than half the year."[6]
Looking at presidents who held office from 1981 to 2024, the use of recess appointments declined. Ronald Reagan (R) made the most recess appointments during this time period, with 240 appointments during his eight years in office. This averages to 30 appointments per year. Barack Obama (D) made the fewest, with 32 recess appointments during his two terms, an average of 4 per year. All 32 of Obama's recess appointments were made before the Supreme Court ruling in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning Company. Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D) made no recess appointments during this time period because the Senate was never in recess for ten consecutive days during Trump's first term or Biden's term in office.[7] See the chart below
See also
- Appointment confirmation process
- Federally appointed officials of the United States
- National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning Company
Footnotes
- ↑ Partnership for Public Service, "Political Appointee Tracker," accessed November 15, 2024
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Supreme Court of the United States (via Findlaw), National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, et al., decided June 26, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Congressional Research Service, "Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions," March 11, 2015
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions," March 15, 2005
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Browse by Congress," accessed November 15, 2024
- ↑ National Archives, "Advice and Consent and the Recess Appointment," January 4, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Browse by Congress," accessed November 15, 2024
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Oyez.org, "National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning," accessed November 18, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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