House Speaker Supports Recess Appointments for Trump’s Cabinet Picks

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‘There may be a function for that. We’ll have to see how it plays out,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said he supports the use of recess appointments of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet selections outside of the standard Senate nominating process.

Over the past week or so, the president-elect has been making announcements for positions he wants to fill in his incoming administration. Last week, while weighing in on the Senate Republican leadership race, Trump said that regardless of who wins, he wants the option to use recess appointments.

“We’re in a time of very divided government and a very partisan atmosphere in Washington. I wish it were not,” Johnson told “Fox News Sunday,” responding to a question about whether he would support recess appointments. “I wish the Senate would simply do its job of advise and consent and allow the president to put the persons in his Cabinet of his choosing.”

If it takes too long to appoint Trump’s choices, Johnson said, “it would be a great detriment to the country, to the American people.”

The Senate, as set up by the U.S. Constitution, holds an important role in confirming or rejecting high-level officials such as Cabinet positions, judges, and ambassadors. However, there is a clause in the Constitution that allows presidents to fill out their administrations while the Senate is in recess.

The move is not without precedent. President Bill Clinton made 139 recess appointments, and later, President George W. Bush made 171 such appointments, according to the Congressional Research Service. President Barack Obama tried to continue the practice, using it 32 times.

“We’ll evaluate all that at the appropriate time, and we’ll make the appropriate decision,“ Johnson said. ”There may be a function for that. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

“I’m sympathetic to all these arguments. As I said, we’ll have to see how this develops. I am very hopeful, very hopeful, that the Senate will do its job, and that is, provide its advice and consent and move these nominees along.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who was elected as the next Senate majority leader last week, told Fox News that he would keep “an aggressive schedule until his nominees are confirmed.” Thune said he is also not taking recess appointments off the table.

On Sunday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that confirming some of Trump’s selections could turn into a “very difficult” process, saying that recess appointments should only be used as a “last resort.”

“It’d be the absolute last resort,” Mullin said. “But if that’s what we have to do to get the confirmation through, then absolutely, let’s do it. But I would say that would be last option.”

Trump has selected former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to be attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) to be director of U.S. intelligence services, among other selections.

On Sunday, Trump continued to round out his team, naming Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate tapped by Trump to lead a new effort on government efficiency with businessman Elon Musk, also predicted pushback from Democrats to promised steep federal cuts that he said showed the need to “score quick wins through executive action.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.