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Nov. 25 (UPI) -- President-elect Donald Trump has announced his nominations for his Cabinet, but his proposal for confirming them breaks longstanding norms. As the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted for a new majority leader -- ultimately selecting Sen. John Thune -- Trump demanded members must support recess appointments. This would circumvent the advice and consent role of the Senate in confirming those nominees.
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Trump said the purpose of leaning on recess appointments is to confirm his appointments more quickly.
"Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner," Trump said on social media.
The Recess Appointments Clause of the Constitution allows the president to make "temporary appointments" when the Senate is not in session. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the U.S. Senate must be in recess for at least 10 days for the president to make a recess appointment.
"It is generally accepted that the Clause was designed to enable the President to ensure the unfettered operation of the government during periods when the Senate was not in session and therefore unable to perform its advice and consent function," the clause reads.
Dr. Meena Bose, dean of Hofstra University's public policy program and director of presidential studies, told UPI that Trump's proposal for recess appointments does not fit what is intended by the Constitution.
"It short-circuits the Constitutional process," Bose said. "It's not meant to be a substitute for the Senate's role in the advisory and approval process."
Many of the nominees Trump seeks to appoint lack expertise relevant to the position they hope to fill. Several are mired in allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct, have a history of signal boosting disinformation and conspiracy theories or have vowed to dismantle the very agencies they would control.
The standard confirmation process involves vetting of the nominees including a background check by the FBI. Nominees also face a public hearing, allowing senators to grill them about their qualifications and any findings that could put their candidacy in question.
Cabinet members, particularly those involved with national intelligence and defense, are granted high-level clearance and access to sensitive information. It is important for the Senate, and the public, to know if they could be compromised by foreign agents, organized crime or other entities that could undermine the operations of the executive branch and the safety of the American people.
Information about financial problems, sexual misconduct or other items considered scandalous would also be considered potential leverage points for entities seeking to influence a Cabinet member.
"Normally, not all of the president's team makes it through," Stephen Farnsworth, political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, told UPI. "Senators, even senators of the president's party, often turn down one nominee or threaten to do so and that nominee withdraws their candidacy."
It is rare for the Senate to vote down a presidential appointment. According to the U.S. Senate's website, it has typically given great deference to the president to select the Cabinet.
Former President George H.W. Bush's choice for secretary of defense, John G. Tower, was rejected by the Senate in 1989. It marked the first time since the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959 that a nominee was rejected.
Tower's appointment was undone by concerns about his alcohol use and sexual misconduct.
Trump had three nominees withdraw during his first term: Andrew Puzder for secretary of the Department of Labor, Dr. Ronny Jackson for secretary of Veterans Affairs and Chad Wolf for secretary of Homeland Security.
Former President Barack Obama had three nominees withdraw, and President George W. Bush had two. Obama and Bush each served two terms.
Those withdrawals account for a small percentage of Cabinet nominees who do not make it through. Farnsworth said that although the Senate confirms most nominees, it tends to be thorough vetting them.
"Normally there's a good deal of deference, but the Senate is not just a rubber stamp," Farnsworth said. "If the Senate chooses to stand down and let the president fill his cabinet with recess appointments, it begs the question of what role the Senate serves," he said.
"But the president-elect's proposal basically argues that the Senate should just step away from its Constitutional obligations."
Cabinet nominees need a simple majority, 51 votes, to be confirmed.
At least some Cabinet members are typically confirmed on the day of inauguration. It can take weeks for all of the Cabinet positions to be confirmed.
Trump has also proposed a new office, the Department of Government Efficiency, to be co-chaired by Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
A president cannot unilaterally create an executive agency, but can create new offices of advisers and external commissions. After Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security. In 2002, it became the Department of Homeland Security with the passage of the Homeland Security Act.
There are limits to how much authority an office created by the president can wield, Bose said.
"There are pretty strict rules on how much authority they have to request information from Cabinet-level departments," Bose said. "Once you move outside of the Senate-confirmed positions or established White House offices there is greater public scrutiny about who is advising the president."
The creation of a Department of Government Efficiency also raises questions of ethics and transparency. Musk has received tens of billions of dollars through U.S. government contracts via his aerospace company, SpaceX, and automotive company Tesla Motors.
Musk has detailed the objectives of the Department of Government Efficiency in numerous posts on his social media platform X. Trump also described the role of the office on social media, saying will "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures."
"There are questions about conflicts of interest that are certainly reasonable," Bose said. "We're kind of in uncharted territory. [Trump's proposal] gives more authority than the Constitution allows the president to do. You have two people who are in the private sector but have a big public presence."
"How will they be able to get the information needed to make any sort of objective assessment of government agencies?" she asked rhetorically.
