WASHINGTON -- Republicans in Congress have called out the Democrats for a fight over recess -- but there are few signs the Democrats are going to show up.In a bid to stop President Obama from making Senate-circumventing appointments while Congress is out -- most notably Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren -- House Speaker John Boehner is banning his members -- and the Senate -- from going on holiday.
For one chamber to bar the other from recess is an extraordinary step that has seldom been perpetrated in the history of Congress, yet it is easily done because the Constitution requires each chamber to consent if the other will be out for more than three days.
It's not that Boehner wants to force his side and the Senate to work while they’re not on recess. He is filling the time with “pro forma sessions” where a couple of members take to the floor to punch the clock every fourth day so Congress can remain “in session.” But lawmakers don’t have to be bothered by any legislation.
Democrats have responded by saying little, and doing nothing. When Boehner launched the GOP siege on recess over the Memorial Day break, the Senate yawned and dutifully took up its own pro forma sessions. The same was expected this week and next with the House holding pro forma sessions. Spokesmen for all of the Democratic leaders told The Huffington Post Tuesday they had no plans to challenge the strategy.
However, after President Obama and Republicans declared Wednesday the Senate should keep doing work on the stalled debt talks, Senate Democrats said they were re-evaluating whether to allow Senators to go home for the Fourth.
Either way, under the normal rules of Capitol Hill, President Obama will not be able to use his own constitutional power to make recess appointments while there is a nearly unprecedented log jam of nominees waiting in the Senate. And an idle pro forma session seems the plan for the longer August break.
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Source: Huffington
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