By Lucretia Hughes Klucken
WASHINGTON — The United States Senate has left Washington for approximately five weeks, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune made certain President Donald Trump would not be free to make recess appointments while senators are away.
The Senate adjourned after completing its work early Friday and is not scheduled to return for regular business until Sept. 14. During that extended break, the chamber has scheduled 11 pro forma sessions beginning Aug. 10 and continuing through Sept. 10.
No legislative business is expected during those sessions.
A senator will briefly open the chamber every few days, conduct little or no business and then adjourn again. Those brief meetings allow the Senate to maintain that it remains in session for constitutional purposes.
The practical effect is significant: Trump will be prevented from using his recess appointment authority to temporarily fill vacant positions that the Senate has failed to address.
The Constitution gives the president authority to fill vacancies during a Senate recess, with those appointments generally lasting until the end of the Senate’s next session. Recess appointments were included in the Constitution because the nation’s business could not always wait for senators to return to Washington.
Pro forma sessions have become a procedural weapon used by both parties to prevent presidents from exercising that authority.
The Supreme Court reinforced their effectiveness in its 2014 decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. The court concluded that the Senate’s pro forma meetings must generally be recognized as sessions when the chamber says it is conducting business and retains the capacity to act.
In plain English, senators can go home while technically keeping the Senate open just enough to stop the president from acting without them.
Democrats used pro forma sessions to block Republican presidents. Republicans used them against Democratic presidents.
But Republicans now control the Senate, and Thune is the majority leader.
That makes the current decision difficult to defend.
Why would a Republican Senate deliberately maintain a procedural roadblock against a Republican president while its members are out of Washington for more than a month?
The Senate did confirm 74 Trump nominees in a single party-line vote before leaving. That fact deserves acknowledgment. The package included ambassadors and other administration officials, and it represented meaningful progress after months of confirmation delays.
But confirming one group of nominees does not erase the remaining vacancies or excuse the Senate from completing its work.
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with the pace of nominations and demanded that senators remain in Washington to address unfinished business. He has also pressed Thune to advance the SAVE America Act, which would impose proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and establish national voter identification standards.
The Senate left anyway.
Supporters of the recess will call it a state work period and argue that senators need time in their home states. Constituent services and local meetings are part of the job. But most Americans do not receive 37 days away from their workplace when major responsibilities remain unfinished.
Taxpayers are still paying senators.
The nation’s work is still waiting.
Nominations remain unresolved. Major legislation remains stalled. The country continues facing questions about election integrity, government accountability, the economy and national security.
Yet the Senate has arranged 11 largely ceremonial meetings to make sure Trump cannot temporarily fill certain vacancies while lawmakers are gone.
That is not simply a summer break. It is an exercise of institutional power.
The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in providing advice and consent on presidential nominations. That responsibility should not be treated casually. Senators should examine nominees, hold hearings and reject candidates they believe are unqualified.
But advice and consent should not become delay and obstruction.
If senators believe a Trump nominee is unfit, they should return to the chamber, debate the nomination and cast a public vote. If they believe the nominee is qualified, they should confirm that person and allow the administration to function.
What they should not do is leave Washington while using procedural tricks to keep the president’s hands tied.
Thune may argue that pro forma sessions are a long-standing Senate practice and that leaders from both parties have used them. That is true.
It is also the problem.
Washington repeatedly defends questionable behavior by pointing out that someone else did it first. Democrats obstructed Republican presidents. Republicans obstructed Democratic presidents. Each side complains when it is harmed and then preserves the same weapon for future use.
The American people are left paying for a government that often appears more committed to protecting its procedures than producing results.
This is about more than one president or one Senate leader. It concerns accountability and the balance of power between elected institutions.
The president should not be allowed to evade legitimate Senate scrutiny whenever he finds it inconvenient. But the Senate should not be permitted to abandon its work while pretending a nearly empty chamber is actively performing its constitutional duty.
If the Senate wishes to prevent recess appointments, senators should remain in Washington and process the nominations.
If they want to leave for 37 days, they should accept the constitutional consequences of a genuine recess.
They should not be allowed to have it both ways.
John Thune controls the Senate’s agenda as majority leader. He cannot blame Democrats for every delay while approving a schedule that keeps senators away from Washington until mid-September.
Leadership means setting priorities, counting votes and getting the work done.
It does not mean sending senators home and assigning someone to occasionally switch on the lights long enough to stop the president from acting.
Republican voters gave their party control of the Senate because they expected Republican senators to advance the agenda they supported at the ballot box. They did not vote for procedural games, extended absences or business as usual.
Thune owes Trump, Republican voters and the entire country an explanation.
Why are senators taking 37 days away from regular business?
Why are 11 pro forma sessions necessary?
Why is a Republican Senate preserving a procedure that prevents a Republican president from filling vacancies?
And why does Washington always seem to find time for a break but never enough time to finish the people’s business?
The Senate should return to work.
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