Legal experts and members of the House GOP are at odds over whether Speaker Johnson and President-elect Trump could, and should, bypass the Senate.
Some Capitol Hill Republicans are already starting to deliberate whether President-elect Trump has a constitutional pathway to adjourn Congress himself in order to clear any possible resistance to his Cabinet appointments.
Trump argued earlier this month in a post on Truth Social that “recess appointments” would enable his new administration “to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”
The Constitution grants the president authority to appoint Cabinet officials when the Senate is out of session, a period of time known as “recess”, bypassing the traditional Senate confirmation process.
Trump allies are exploring whether a constitutional clause would enable House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to work with Trump to shut down Congress even if the Senate objects – clearing the way for his recess appointments.
The passage in question would allow the commander in chief to “on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.”
If Johnson proposes to take the House and Senate out of session and the Senate resists, then there is “disagreement”, the theory goes, and Trump could send everyone home for as long as he wants.
“We’re still looking at that”, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, told Fox News Digital. “I’m actually talking to a bunch of folks who have been a part of litigating this in the past… reviewing it to kind of figure out the history and the contours of that particular provision, because that’s kind of in the zip code of unprecedented.”
He said there was “zero question that the House and Senate can choose to adjourn”, at which point Trump could make his recess appointments.
