Recess Appointments

On Tuesday, President Obama announced he would consider using recess appointments to get several key administration nominees to their posts if Senate Republicans deny them an up-or-down vote.

Unlike pieces of legislation, the president can invoke his constitutional right to appoint nominees during a congressional recess (the next is the Presidents Day recess the week of Feb. 15). Although many conservatives are criticizing Obama’s consideration of such a process, he is the only president in the past three decades who has not used this authority by this point in his term. Within the first year that President George W. Bush was in office, he had recess appointed several nominees. Why shouldn’t President Obama?

In a time of crisis, the partisan politics of Republicans has placed many critical jobs on hold, hindering the political process and the ability of the government to function properly. Blocking executive branch nominees does not benefit anyone. This is not the time to play games and hold key nominations for the sake of short-term political gains. Now is the time to act and get things done.

If recess appointments will achieve this goal, then I see no reason to wait any longer.