Over the last two months, there has been a lot of talk about Trump’s cabinet appointments and which ones people believe will be approved by the Senate. Some people have suggested that Trump will use recess appointments to get around Senate approval.
But there is also another way to do it.
Trump can use the Federal Vacancies Reform Act which was passed in 1998. He used this for some appointments in his first term and can certainly do so again in his second.
CBS News reported:
How Trump could put allies in key government posts without Senate approval
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term in the White House in just a few weeks, he has suggested that he will use recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process and quickly install his picks to key positions across the federal government.
The demand has been met with pushback from some Republicans, but there is another way in which Trump could place those loyal to him in high-ranking positions without Senate approval, albeit temporarily: a 25-year-old federal law that sets the rules for presidents to tap acting officials to fill vacant positions that require Senate confirmation.
Enacted in 1998, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, or the Vacancies Act, limits which government employees can temporarily fill the roughly 1,300 federal offices that require nomination by the president and approval by the Senate.
The playbook wouldn’t be new to Trump, who installed “acting” leaders atop various federal agencies and subagencies in his first term, including the Departments of Defense and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump should not have to do this in order to get his team in place, but if the Senate decides to play games he should go right around them. Democrats and the media will attack him for doing so, but they would do that anyway. The country wants the new Trump administration up and running ASAP. There is a ton of work that needs to be done and the people cannot be made to wait.
