Trump’s controversial appointees could bypass the vetting process. Here’s how

president-elect Donald Trump is on track to push through some of his controversial nominations for key White House positions without vetting them by the Senate, effectively telling the upper chamber of Congress to take a break.

Under the U.S. Constitution, when a new president takes office, their appointments to government positions, ambassadors and Supreme Court justices must be confirmed — or opposed — by the Senate.

Trump hopes to bypass this vetting and approval process as he calls on the Senate to agree to recess appointments so he can fill the posts quickly.

“We need vacancies filled IMMEDIATELY!” he wrote on his social media channels.

Republicans won a majority in the Senate in last week’s elections, handing control of the chamber to Democrats.

But the Senate has done that before refused to agree to Trump’s demand for recess appointments in 2017 – when Republicans had the majority – during his first term.

This time, he has always chosen provocative figures for his cabinet that has left both Republicans and Democrats stunned.

“The Senate is supposed to control the impulses of the presidency, there needs to be some kind of review to ensure that the president makes wise choices,” Christopher Phelps, associate professor of American history at the University of Nottingham, told me. i.

“But Trump is using age-old provisions like this to allow him to push through appointments that, in his view, are likely to come under heavy scrutiny and criticism.”

Here’s everything you need to know about recess appointments and how likely they are to happen:

What are break agreements?

The recess appointments date back to the founding of the American republic at the end of the 18th century, when the coming together of the thirteen states into the United States was no easy feat.

Lawmakers would be separated by hundreds of miles between states like Georgia and New Hampshire, and it would be weeks before they could meet again.

Recess appointments were created to ensure that the president would have the opportunity to fill vacancies during periods when Congress was not in session.

In modern times, the Senate must be in recess for at least ten days before the president can make recess appointments.

Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the Senate’s “next session,” essentially nearly two years, but those appointed may be reappointed by the President afterward.

Cabinet members can be impeached by Congress “for and conviction for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to the Constitution.

“That is a very high bar for dismissal – and historically very rare,” Professor Phelps said.

Will the Senate agree to this?

Professor Phelps believes senators have two options: either block appointees they think are bad for the country, which means opposing Trump and pushing for hearings and due process. Or let the president-elect push through the recess agreements because “they don’t want to thwart Trump.”

“They’re not really enjoying those two options right now,” he added.

There are some signs that Republicans are pushing back on Trump’s demands. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans voted to impeach Rick Scott of Florida, who said he would have no problem allow break appointmentsas their leader.

Instead, they chose South Dakota’s John Thune, who… New York TimesThe editors opined that it is “much more likely that he will uphold his chamber’s right to refuse consent to presidential nominations.”

Another consideration is voters and donors, said Professor Phelps, to whom Republicans are quite receptive.

He explained: “The Senate is a great concentration of political power at the top of the country, and they’re going to listen to their constituents in places like Nebraska, but they’re also going to listen to the big banks and the big tech companies, and everyone else who has an ear.

“And there are many people who do not want these arbitrary rhetorical ‘bombers’ to be in charge of major institutions that they deal with on a daily basis and who want the country to be functional.”

Who are Trump’s picks for key roles?

One of the latest nominations for Trump’s Maga dream team is Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who, like the president-elect, was once investigated by the Justice Department in a sex trafficking investigation. He’s tapped now to lead that department as attorney general.

Gaetz has never worked at the Justice Department or as a prosecutor at any level of government, but if appointed attorney general he would oversee both the FBI and the ATF, formally known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department for nearly three years over sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl, but the department decided not to pursue criminal charges against him last year.

Trump has named Tulsi Gabbard as the next top US spy if he is named director of national intelligence. Gabbard, a Democrat-turned-Republican and former congressman representing Hawaii, has clashed with the U.S. intelligence community on several occasions, most notably when she meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assadand for her alleged sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gaetz and Gabbard’s nominations followed Tuesday’s announcement for Fox News host Pete Hegseth to become the new Minister of Defensedespite having no government experience.

How were break agreements used?

This is reported by the Congressional Research ServiceBill Clinton made 139 recess appointments, George W. Bush made 171 and Barack Obama made 32. Trump and Joe Biden never exercised that power while in office.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled against Obama’s recess appointments during a three-day recess, which was considered too short a period to grant them. Three of the four recess appointments in question found constitutionally invalid.

They believed that the president should only use the recess appointment power during a recess of ten days or longer.