I don’t intend to start another political fight about Bolton or any other recess appointments. But I was wondering:
Is there anything requiring a President of the United States to have a name considered by Congress before a recess appointment is made? If not, it seems a President could simply wait until the first recess and then appoint hundreds of his choices to the Executive and Judicial branches and avoid confirmation fights altogether.
Can the President appoint a person already voted and rejected by Congress? I know a rejected candidate can be resubmitted Congress for approval, but a recess appointment after a rejection seems like it would really make a Congressional vote meaningless.
Listening to NPR this morning they said the initial thoughts behind a recess appointment was to fill an unforseen vacancy (e.g. someone died while congress was in recess and the post needs to be filled). So, I would say no, an appointment need not be submitted to congress first.
Interesting question…I really have no idea but even if the President could he would doubtless ignite a shit storm on the hill. Probably even piss off members of his own party for snubbing the senate in such a fashion.
Nope - the major point of recess appointments is to immediately fill vacancies that occur when the Senate is not in session. All Presidents have used the power to sidestep the Senate when they are being cantankerous.
Yes, the President can appoint anyone he wants for a recess appointment. I think there have even been a few cases of appointing outright rejections. But for high-level positions, an outright down vote in the Senate is rare; if it doesn’t look like they’ll be confirmed, the nomination is usually withdrawn.