30-second sessions to scuttle Bush’s mischief
Posted December 20th, 2007 at 10:00 am
A month ago, expecting the president to start making recess appointments the moment the Senate broke for a Thanksgiving break, the Democratic leadership announced it would hold pro-forma sessions for two weeks. Sens. Jim Webb (Va.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), and Jack Reed (R.I.) would stop by the chamber every couple of days, bang the gavel, and then go home.
Though obviously inconvenient for those who have to head to the Hill over the break, it worked and several pending nominations remained pending. Of course, Congress is set to take another break for the winter holidays. Will Senate Dems keep the chamber “open” to scuttle Bush’s mischief? Thankfully, yes.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced that he will call the Senate into pro forma sessions every several days during the upcoming winter recess in order to prevent President Bush from making recess appointments.
Reid explained that he and Josh Bolten, the White House chief of staff, were not able to reach an agreement to prevent Bush from giving a recess appointment to Stephen Bradbury, the acting head of DOJ’s Legal Counsel, and without that agreement with the White House, Reid refused to allow the Senate to recess for three weeks.
Specifically, the pro forma sessions will be held on Dec. 23, Dec. 26, Dec. 28, Dec. 31 (a Sunday), Jan. 3, Jan. 7, Jan. 9, Jan. 11, Jan. 15, and Jan. 22, the last of which will mark the second session of the 110th Congress.
Apparently, there were extensive negotiations between the leadership and the White House to make this unnecessary. The talks didn’t go well. |
