The vetting and approval process for nominees can be lengthy, but it was included in the US Constitution to provide a check on presidential power. It is also designed to prevent corrupt or to keep unqualified nominees from entering an administration.
There is, however, an exception to this process – recess appointments – which Trump appears intent to use to ensure his appointments are able to take office.
He recently said the Senate “must agree” to recess appointments, otherwise “we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.” He noted that in his past administration, some of his nominees took multiple years to be confirmed.
Trump’s plan to use recess appointments, along with the announcement that Republican senators’ support bypassing the Senate vetting process, is unusual.
This exception to the process means that when the Senate is on recess, the president can make an appointment to a position that normally requires Senate approval.
The process was created when Congress didn’t meet as often as it does today, and was to be used in emergencies.
It is also supposed to be a temporary appointment and expires at the end of a congressional session – at most, one year.
Some past presidents have employed the method liberally, often as a way of circumventing political divides that would slow nominations.
George W Bush made 171 recess appointments, Bill Clinton made 139 and Barack Obama made at least 32, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
This method of getting nominees into office was virtually stopped after the Supreme Court ruled against Obama in 2014, striking down multiple recess appointments and calling them unconstitutional.
Josh Chafetz, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, explains that recess appointments are “not meant to be a mechanism for circumventing Senate consent”.
While other presidents have used them, Prof Chafetz says: “I can’t think of an instance in which the Senate majority has triggered a recess simply so that a president could make recess appointments.”
