Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) pitched Senate Republicans on Friday about allowing President Donald Trump to make recess appointments. By his own admission, it didn’t gain traction.
Johnson made his case to his Senate GOP colleagues during a closed-door lunch meeting as the chamber is staring down the possibility of a rare weekend session as it slogs through Trump’s Cabinet picks amid Democratic slow-walking.
Asked afterward if his colleagues were interested in the idea, Johnson said, “No, not at this point in time.”
Johnson added that, “if we can grind through this process,” Republicans can get close to reaching the pace of confirmations during the Obama years and his Senate GOP colleagues would be “OK just maintaining the process” rather than allowing recess appointments.
Johnson’s pitch comes as Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of using recess appointments to try to quickly get his nominees in place, including privately raising the idea this week during a closed-door meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson.
Thune has been careful to leave the door open — calling recess appointments a “last resort” — but also hasn’t embraced the idea, making clear that his strategy is instead to keep the Senate in session late at night, into the weekend and even into previously scheduled breaks in order to confirm Trump’s nominees.
Trump’s talk of recess appointments has also sparked heartburn in corners of the Senate GOP conference, raising questions about if there would even be enough support to adjourn the chamber in order to tee up the ability to do recess appointments.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), an ally of Trump’s, said in a brief interview that Johnson spoke about recess appointments in the lunch but, “that’s not going to fly.”
