• Trump nominees show up for work without waiting for Senate approval
    8 replies, posted
[quote]The Trump administration is pushing the limits of an obscure federal law that restricts nominees from serving in federal positions before they’re approved by the Senate. A POLITICO review has identified four officials at three different agencies doing substantially similar work to the position for which they have been nominated – despite not yet getting a green-light from the Senate. [b]The hires reflect increasing impatience in federal agencies that key jobs remain unfilled nine months into the new administration.[/b] President Donald Trump has complained repeatedly that Democrats are moving too slowly to confirm his nominees, though he’s also said he intends to leave many jobs empty. Democrats counter that the onus is on Trump, who has not yet announced nominees for a slew of key positions across the government. Either way, lawyers and other experts said the moves – including by the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget – to have unconfirmed nominees show up for work [b]appears to skirt the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which prohibits most people who have been nominated to fill a vacant government position from performing that office’s duties in an acting capacity.[/b] It’s unclear whether the officials in question are in direct violation of the law, but [b]some experts said the administration appears to be defying its intent.[/b] “This seems like it goes further than most examples I have seen,” said Norm Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “It seems like in some cases they’re taking people and potentially giving them roles that go beyond what they’re supposed to have.” [...] POLITICO identified several other nominees who worked in federal agencies before they were approved by the Senate, including at the Energy Department and Health and Human Services Department. But reporters were unable to determine whether they were focused on issues within the purview of the position for which they are awaiting confirmation. Passed by Congress in 1998, the Vacancies Act was written in response to an effort by then-President Bill Clinton to install an official at the Justice Department in an acting capacity even after he was rejected by the Senate. In recent weeks, Senate Democrats have raised red flags about two nominees who are advising Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on the policy issues they will oversee if they are confirmed. Susan Bodine was nominated in May to head EPA’s enforcement office. [b]She has not yet been confirmed, but she is currently working at EPA as an adviser to Pruitt on enforcement matters.[/b] “Your appointment creates the appearance, and perhaps the effect, of circumventing the Senate’s constitutional advice and consent responsibility for the position to which you have been nominated,” Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote in a September letter to Bodine.[/quote] [url=http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/20/trump-nominees-working-senate-approval-243972]Source: Politico[/url] Emphasis mine. Yet another example of the magical "R" next to a name removing any responsibility for potentially illegal activity.
/me stands from my bench at the edge of the Curia Hostilia and points finger accusingly at trump he wants to be king!! King?!
Imagine if this was the thing that got him impeached. :v:
[QUOTE=Destroyox;52801769]Imagine if this was the thing that got him impeached. :v:[/QUOTE] I'd take anything at this rate, even forgetting to put in a few extra quarters at a parking meter.
[QUOTE=Destroyox;52801769]Imagine if this was the thing that got him impeached. :v:[/QUOTE] It seems almost as if Trump does an impeach-worthy thing every single fucking week.
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;52802012]It seems almost as if Trump does an impeach-worthy thing every single fucking week.[/QUOTE] Maybe they are just collecting them all until the Russia investigation reaches its event horizon so that there is absolutely no escape for the entire administration Like imagine the entire executive branch being taken down at the same time because that seems to be what might happen
[QUOTE=Destroyox;52801769]Imagine if this was the thing that got him impeached. :v:[/QUOTE] He could set up at a senate meeting and fuck a baby in sight of everyone, it wouldn't get him impeached by the Republicans.
[QUOTE=piddlezmcfuz;52802079]Maybe they are just collecting them all until the Russia investigation reaches its event horizon so that there is absolutely no escape for the entire administration Like imagine the entire executive branch being taken down at the same time because that seems to be what might happen[/QUOTE] Honestly, I’m starting to doubt that the investigation will result in any meaningful action against Trump. If I recall correctly, impeachment is a political offense and requires congress to vote in favor of action against the president. I think it’s highly unlikely for a sizable number of Republicans to vote in favor of impeachment, especially if more of the moderates are replaced by Alt Right Republicans in 2018 as i expect to happen.
Nothing will come from it. Our government is fucking spineless.
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