CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – EXECUTIVE BRANCH
March 29, 2012 – 8:28 p.m.
Senate Leaders Broker Deal on Dozens of Obama’s Nominees
By Niels Lesniewski, CQ Staff
A freeze on Senate consideration of executive branch nominations thawed Thursday when the chamber agreed to confirm them and the White House agreed not to make recess appointments during the April break.
Majority Leader
“This is the result of a successful discussion among the majority leader, the White House and myself,” McConnell said. “Based on the White House’s assurance that there will be no recess appointments during the upcoming adjournment, I will not be objecting.”
Reid signaled his agreement that the Senate should be able to work through nominees in this fashion.
The nominees confirmed Thursday will fill vacancies in many parts of the federal government.
Rebecca M. Blank was confirmed as deputy secretary at the Commerce Department. She had been appointed to that role in an acting capacity in November 2010 and served as acting secretary between the terms of
The list of nominees confirmed also includes two inspectors general.
Michael E. Horowitz was confirmed as inspector general at the Justice Department, with Christy L. Romero confirmed to head the inspector general’s office for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Romero has been deputy special inspector general of the 2008 program to rescue the financial industry (PL 110-343) since February 2011 and served as the office’s chief of staff before that.
The Senate also confirmed Obama’s picks for several ambassadorships, including choices to represent the United States in two North African countries that saw great changes last year. John Christopher Stevens will be U.S. ambassador to Libya, while Jacob Walles will be the top U.S. diplomat in Tunisia.
Adjournment
The Senate on Thursday also adopted by unanimous consent a formal adjournment resolution (
The Republican-led House would need to agree with the adjournment measure in order to prevent the “pro formas,” but that would seem possible since it has the support of McConnell.
Senate Leaders Broker Deal on Dozens of Obama’s Nominees
The standoff began in December when McConnell announced after Reid had read a similar list of nominations on the Senate floor that he would object. At that time, he had not received assurances that the White House would honor what he called the usual “practice and precedent” with respect to recess appointments.
That was one of the first signs that Obama might seek to use his recess appointment power to install stalled nominees into executive branch positions during the holiday break. Some disputed whether the Senate was actually in a long enough “recess” to make the appointments legal.
Obama ultimately used the power to put Director Richard Cordray in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to fill three seats on the National Labor Relations Board, all over opposition of Republicans to the practice.