WASHINGTON — Freshman Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., will briefly sit in a very special chair today for a several-minute skirmish in a long-running war.
By presiding over a ridiculously short House session, Denham is helping his fellow Republicans block President Barack Obama from making appointments while Congress is in recess. It’s a bipartisan tactic, as are the recess appointments it’s designed to frustrate.
“Stopping the president from bypassing the constitutional screening process and making a unilateral appointment is one way that I can ensure . . . accountability to the people of California,” Denham said Monday.
To do so, Denham will gavel in a new House session at 10 a.m. For the moment, he will be called House speaker pro tempore. Because he probably will be the only House member in the chamber, Denham will recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The House chaplain will say a short prayer. A brief announcement may be made.
Then Denham will bang the gavel bringing the session to an end. Just by holding the session, Congress isn’t considered to be in recess. No recess means no recess appointments.
The whole maneuver won’t take long. The House wrapped up its Aug. 19 session in less than seven minutes.
“It could last four minutes,” Denham’s press secretary, Allie Brandenburger, said Monday, “but those four minutes are critical for the next four years. . . . Rep. Denham believes we must do all we can to stop these recess appointments.”
Denham was on the East Coast on Monday, making the quick trip to Capitol Hill relatively painless. By this afternoon, he’s scheduled to be flying west so he can throw out the first pitch at a 7:05 p.m. Modesto Nuts baseball game.
Senate Democrats pulled a similar trick during the last two years of George W. Bush’s presidency.
“Progress can’t be made if the president makes controversial recess appointments,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid argued in November 2007, explaining that he was “keeping the Senate in pro forma (session) to prevent recess appointments.”
