A quick Senate session blocks Bush appointees

[May 24, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate is famed for its longwinded debates, but on Friday it took Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown just seconds to stop Republicans in their tracks.

With the Senate entering the first day of its Memorial Day recess, the Ohio senator was briefly in the chair, before a near-empty chamber, to gavel in and gavel out what is called a pro forma session. Without that procedural move, the Senate would technically be adjourned and President Bush could install administration officials or judges as "recess appointments" - without Senate confirmation.

"That's the fastest I've ever done it," said Brown, who like other freshmen does duty as presiding officer when the Senate is in regular session. He said he didn't realize until he got there that the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, which usually open a session, were dispensed with for pro forma meetings.

"I'm willing to do it," Brown said of showing up when nearly every senator has already left town. "We're not going to let them get away with that kind of abuse of power."

According to numbers provided by the Senate historian's office, Bush had made 165 recess appointments by last fall. That's when Democrats started blocking them with pro forma sessions.

By comparison, former President Clinton had a total of 140 recess appointments over eight years, George H.W. Bush had 77 in his four years and Ronald Reagan 243 in his eight years in office. A recess appointee is allowed to serve until the end of the congressional session, which in this case coincides with the end of the Bush presidency.

The mini-sessions must be held every three days to keep the Senate from officially going into recess. Next Tuesday, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who also got pro forma duty over the New Year holiday because he lives nearby, will take the chair. On Thursday, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., will do his few seconds' worth.

The confirmation process can often get bitter when the White House and the Senate are controlled by different parties. Late Thursday the Senate was primed to confirm some 80 nominees, mostly ambassadors and military officers but including Housing and Urban Development Secretary-nominee Steven Preston, when a Democrat-White House deal fell through amid mutual recriminations.

"So here we are going into a recess. These people are not going to have their jobs. There is no fault on behalf of the Democrats," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Reid said Democrats had rushed through the confirming of Republican-backed nominees "because we wanted one Democrat approved. It was personally important to one of our senators." He was referring to Kerry Kennedy, niece of ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who was nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace.

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said it was "appalling" that in the midst of a housing crisis "that the majority leader let an unrelated dispute stand in the way" of getting a new housing secretary on the job.

She said there are some 240 pending executive branch and judicial nominees.

They include Environmental Protection Agency general counsel-nominee David Hill; Robert Sturgell, named to head the Federal Aviation Administration; and Kerry Weems, nominated to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Confirmation is also pending for Michael Leiter, named director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Clinton drew the ire of Republicans in 1999 when he used a recess appointment to sidestep GOP opposition to San Francisco philanthropist and gay activist James Hormel becoming ambassador to Luxembourg.

One of the more controversial Bush recess appointments was that of Sam Fox to be ambassador to Belgium. The St. Louis businessman was blocked by Democrats because of his $50,000 contribution to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which attacked Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race.

[Associated Press; By JIM ABRAMS]

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