On the recordJuly 31, 2012
With due deference to my friend from New York and my friend from Utah--and I do mean that literally--I rise in opposition to this bill. What we've seen over the last year and a half is a Presidency that had the most disdain for Congress in the confirmation process of any President I'm aware of, and I'm quite familiar with the history of the United States. Not only has this President made recess appointments when there was no recess, not only has this President appointed czars that were beyond the reach of Congress--although we could have made it within our reach; we could have just cut off every dime for anything that did not come before congressional approval--but with this latest tactic of having a recess appointment when there wasn't a recess, all of the talk across the country about the appointing of czars with no accountability to the Senate, I really did expect some of my conservative friends in the Senate at some point to move a bill on this subject. I expected it to be a bill that would send a loud and clear message to the President that, if you feel like some of these don't need to be appointed, you come talk to us about it, and let's talk about no more recess appointments. Let's talk about some of these others. {time} 1540 Instead, it's almost a pat on the back to the President to say, Look, you've ignored us; you've made us irrelevant. You've done all of these things, as you've said, Congress won't act so you're going to act.…
