Mike Thompson: “on behalf of myself and a bipartisan group of senators, I introduce today the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. This…”

“on behalf of myself and a bipartisan group of senators, I introduce today the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. This legislation is needed to preserve one of the Senate's most important powers: the duty to advise and consent on presidential nominees. The Framers of the Constitution established a procedure for the appointment of all government officers: they were to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, unless Congress decided that the appointment of specified inferior officers was to be made by the President alone, the courts, or by department heads. The First Congress, however, recognized that vacancies would arise in executive positions, and enacted legislation providing for officials to temporarily exercise the powers of an office even without Senate confirmation. The law was adopted essentially in its current form in 1868, and was last amended in 1988. As amended, the first assistant or another Senate-confirmed individual can serve for 120 days after the vacancy, and, in addition, may serve beyond those 120 days if the President submits a nomination for that office to the Senate within those 120 days. Unfortunately, the Vacancies Act is honored more in the breach than in the observance. For the past 25 years, administrations of both parties have claimed that the Justice Department is exempt from the Vacancies Act.”