Recess appointment: Difference between revisions

President George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments (average of 21 per year). During the last two years of the Bush administration, Democratic [[Senate Majority Leader]] [[Harry Reid]] sought to prevent further recess appointments. Bush promised not to make any during the August recess that year, but no agreement was reached for the two-week Thanksgiving break, in November 2007. As a result, Reid did not allow adjournments of more than three days from then until the end of the Bush presidency by holding ''[[pro forma#United States|pro forma]]'' sessions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/s1102.html |title=Days in Session Calendars U.S. Senate – 110th Congress 2nd Session |website=Thomas.loc.gov |date=December 31, 2008 |access-date=May 30, 2011 |archive-date=May 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506095036/http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/s1102.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://democrats.senate.gov/calendar/2008-12.html |title=Senate Calendar – December |website=Democrats.senate.gov |access-date=May 30, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606164135/http://democrats.senate.gov/calendar/2008-12.html |archive-date=June 6, 2011 }}</ref> Prior to this, there had been speculation that [[James W. Holsinger]] would receive a recess appointment as [[Surgeon General of the United States]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/reid-to-bush-no-recess-appointments-wanted/ |title=Reid To Bush: No Recess Appointments Wanted |website=Cbsnews.com |date=November 16, 2007 |access-date=May 30, 2011}}</ref>