WASHINGTON – On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Senators got back to doing what critics say they do best– nothing.
Joking aside, the Senate met for the first time since Sept. 18 for a pro forma session. That’s essentially a session in name only, held as a formality and often over in the blink of an eye. And while it may seem silly for senators to simply gavel in and gavel back out immediately, the reason behind these pro forma sessions is often political.
In June, the Supreme Court declared that three of President Barack Obama’s appointments for the National Labor Relations Board had been appointed unconstitutionally.
The issue was that Obama had appointed the three during a three-day recess, part of a longer recess broken up by pro forma sessions.
The Constitution says that the president must get the consent of the Senate before federal judges and senior government officials can start to work.
Unless, that is, the president is acting to fill vacancies that occur during a recess. In that case, he can grant a commission that will expire at the end of the Senate’s next session.
But the high court ruled that the three-day recess was not long enough to trigger the Recess Appointment Clause.
In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that the length of time necessary to trigger that clause would be 10 days. And since either the House or the Senate can require the Senate to hold a pro forma session, this is a sharp limit on executive power.
This could be especially important for the Obama administration if the Republicans win control of the Senate in next month’s mid-term elections, as many are expecting.