Senate Takes Vacation but Not From Politics

Nov. 29, 2007— -- For most Americans, Thanksgiving '07 is nothing but a fond (or frazzled) memory of turkey, cranberries and traffic jams.

But while most Americans are lucky to get two days off for Thanksgiving, their elected lawmakers on Capitol Hill gave themselves two weeks this year.

And most senators are taking advantage of this second week of Thanksgiving celebration. They're meeting with constituents in their home states, flying to Iraq to meet with U.S. troops or heading way down South where it's a bit warmer to meet with heads of state.

Congress Is Out, Politics Is On

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for instance, is flying down to Brazil.

Reid, D-Nev., is leading a bipartisan trip of five Democrats and two Republicans south of the equator. They didn't go for the weather, though. The stated purpose of the trip is to "show the United States' commitment to strengthening ties with our neighbors in Latin America."

The senators have planned meetings with the presidents of Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico "to discuss issues vital for the security and economy of the United States," according to a statement from Reid's office.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, who has tied his presidential campaign to his support for the war in Iraq, quietly took his seventh trip to the war zone and met with American troops and Iraqi leaders.

But not everyone is getting to take full advantage of the time outside the Beltway.

One Democrat has been coming in every three days to convene a special, lonely session of Congress to keep President Bush from sneaking in any recess appointments that Democrats might find unadvisable.

Last week it was Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who braved the traffic from his Virginia home to cross the Potomac and call the Senate to order.

On "Black Friday," the traditional day of shopping deals and steals the day after Thanksgiving, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., traded the Columbia Mall for the Senate gavel.

And for the past two session, the duty has fallen to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

The special sessions go something like this: The senator, in this case Reed, calls the Senate to order.

The clerk reads a letter from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., the nonagenarian President pro tempore, appointing Reed the presiding officer.

Then Reed quickly gavels the session closed with none of the people's business actually conducted.

It is called a pro forma session, but it does technically keep the Senate in session, even if senators are flung around the globe.

And with the Senate in session, President Bush cannot make what is called a "recess appointment."

No Child's Play During Recess

Recess appointments are left over from a time when senators could not just hop on a plane and be in Washington to vote in a matter of hours.

A recess appointment enabled the president to temporarily bypass Senate approval to keep the government running. At least that was the original intent.

But these days, the appointments can just as often be a political tool.

When President Bush's divisive nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolten, seemed in peril, the president gave a recess appointment, angering Democrats and even some Republicans opposed to the appointment.

Bush did the same with Sam Fox, whom he appointed to be the ambassador to Belgium.

Fox had been a contributor to the political Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which helped derail Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign by impugning his service record.

This recess, Democrats are most concerned about James Holsinger, President Bush's nominee to be surgeon general, who has drawn fire for his views on homosexuality.

A recess appointment now would put Holsinger in office through the end of Bush's time in the White House.

Political Tradition or Political Power Play?

President Clinton made 139 recess appointments during his two terms in office. President Bush made 167 in his first six years in office.

Tuesday, Reed went from his quick Senate session to a classified briefing in the Capitol building on "intelligence matters."

When Dorgan came in the day after Thanksgiving, he conducted his pro forma turn and then went to a meeting with Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., on hashing out an appropriations bill to fund energy and water programs.

"We wish a pro forma session had not been required," Dorgan said in a statement Friday. "But the president was not willing to reach an agreement regarding recess appointments during the Thanksgiving break. He wanted the option to again thwart the will of the Senate, and the intent of the Constitution."

The Energy and Water Appropriations bill is one of 12 appropriations bills the Congress is expected to pass each year when it is not in pro forma session but doing actual work.

Those bills are usually due by the end of the fiscal year. But this year, amid debates over troop funding and the Iraq War, the Democrats who control Congress and President Bush have only been able to agree on a defense appropriations bill so far.

The other 11 bills are now over a month late.

And so the pro forma sessions will be over and lawmakers will be back next week. It is a shorter break than originally planned.

Senators usually hope to take the rest of the year off -- at least from legislating -- before Thanksgiving.