A Poke in the Eye at Recess

"Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said yesterday that he will ask the Government Accountability Office for a ruling on the legality of the unusual appointment, which he called 'an abuse of executive authority.' . . .

"In addition to Fox, Bush, as long expected, gave a recess appointment to Susan E. Dudley, who had headed the anti-regulatory Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to oversee federal regulatory policy at the Office of Management and Budget. . . .

"Bush issued a third recess appointment to Andrew Biggs, assistant director of the Project on Social Security Choice at the libertarian Cato Institute and an advocate of privatizing Social Security, to be deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. That drew an angry rebuke from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who said that 'prospects for getting real Social Security reform anytime soon just took a big hit with this recess appointment.' Baucus added: 'This administration is clearly not serious about leaving behind the failed schemes of the past.'"

Biggs was a frequent companion for Bush during his failed Social Security barnstorming tour in 2005.

Joel Havemann writes in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions.

"As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies. . . .

"Bush has used recess appointments more than 100 times, often to get around a recalcitrant Senate. In perhaps his most controversial such appointment, he named John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations in 2005. Bolton served until late last year, when the 109th Congress adjourned and he was constitutionally required to step down.

"Although Dudley's new job is more obscure than those to which Biggs and Fox were appointed, it also is potentially the most powerful. The budget office's regulatory shop acts as a funnel for all regulations emanating throughout the government."

Dodd's Legal Challenge

Here is Dodd's full statement: "It is outrageous that the President has sought to stealthily appoint Sam Fox to the position of ambassador to Belgium when the President formally requested that the Fox nomination be withdrawn from the Senate because it was facing certain defeat in the Foreign Relations Committee last week. I seriously question the legality of the President's use of the recess appointment authority in this instance. I intend to seek an opinion on the legality of this appointment from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and invite other Senators to join with me in that request. This is underhanded and an abuse of Executive authority -- sadly this behavior has become the hallmark of this administration."

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press: "Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers' approval.

"'This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone's imagination,' said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. 'This is a travesty.' . . .

"Presidents since George Washington have made appointments during congressional recesses to fill positions in the executive and judicial branches. Bush has used the authority more frequently than some -- but not all -- of his most recent predecessors, making 171 so far, compared with 140 for President Clinton over two terms, 77 by his father in one term and 243 by President Reagan during two terms."