Overview

• Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader John Thune will convene the House and Senate every four to five days during the August recess to deny the ten-day hiatus needed for recess appointments.
• The maneuver revives a long-standing bipartisan tactic in which brief ceremonial sessions are used to prevent presidential use of recess appointment powers.
• Rep. Thomas Massie publicly denounced the plan as undermining executive authority and exposing rifts within the GOP over appointment strategy.
• Senators Mike Lee and Ron Johnson continue to advocate for leveraging recess appointments to address a backlog of more than 100 pending nominees.
• Under the Constitution and a 2014 Supreme Court ruling, the Senate must be officially recessed for at least ten days to permit recess appointments and requires the House’s consent for adjournments exceeding three days.