[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 509 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 509

    Disapproving of the President's appointment of four officers or 
 employees of the United States during a period when no recess of the 
    Congress for a period of more than three days was authorized by 
    concurrent resolution and expressing the sense of the House of 
 Representatives that those appointments were made in violation of the 
                             Constitution.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 10, 2012

    Mrs. Black (for herself, Mrs. Adams, Mr. Akin, Mr. Austria, Mr. 
  Bilirakis, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Bonner, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Burgess, Mr. 
Burton of Indiana, Mr. Coffman of Colorado, Mr. Conaway, Mr. Cravaack, 
 Mr. Crawford, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Duncan of Tennessee, Mrs. Ellmers, 
Mr. Fincher, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Flake, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Franks of 
 Arizona, Mr. Garrett, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Gosar, 
   Mr. Griffin of Arkansas, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Harper, Mr. Harris, Mr. 
 Huizenga of Michigan, Mr. Hultgren, Ms. Jenkins, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, 
Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. Jones, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. Kinzinger of 
   Illinois, Mr. Labrador, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Landry, Mrs. Lummis, Mr. 
   Marino, Mr. McClintock, Mr. McCotter, Mr. McHenry, Mr. Miller of 
  Florida, Mr. Mulvaney, Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania, Mr. Nugent, Mr. 
Nunnelee, Mr. Palazzo, Mr. Paul, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Pompeo, Mrs. Roby, Mr. 
 Ross of Florida, Mrs. Schmidt, Mr. Schock, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Stivers, 
  Mr. Tiberi, Mr. Walsh of Illinois, Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. Wilson of 
  South Carolina, Mr. Womack, Mr. Young of Florida, Mr. Scalise, Mr. 
      Canseco, and Mr. Quayle) submitted the following resolution

                            January 17, 2012

               Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Disapproving of the President's appointment of four officers or 
 employees of the United States during a period when no recess of the 
    Congress for a period of more than three days was authorized by 
    concurrent resolution and expressing the sense of the House of 
 Representatives that those appointments were made in violation of the 
                             Constitution.

Whereas article 1, section 5, clause 4 of the Constitution states, ``Neither 
        House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the 
        other, adjourn for more than three days'';
Whereas a 1993 Justice Department Memorandum, relating to the case of Mackie v. 
        Clinton and formally known as the Memorandum of Points and Authorities 
        in Support of Defendants' Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Partial 
        Summary Judgment, states the following: ``If the recess here at issue 
        were of three days or less, a closer question would be presented. The 
        Constitution restricts the Senate's ability to adjourn its session for 
        more than three days without obtaining the consent of the House of 
        Representatives . . . It might be argued that this means that the 
        Framers did not consider one, two and three day recesses to be 
        constitutionally significant.'';
Whereas, on January 4, 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Richard Cordray to 
        be the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and 
        appointed Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the 
        National Labor Relations Board; and
Whereas these appointments broke the long-established precedent of Congress 
        being in recess for more than three days before the President can make a 
        recess appointment: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the 
President's appointment of four officers or employees of the United 
States during a period when no recess of the Congress for a period of 
more than three days was authorized by concurrent resolution and 
expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that those 
appointments were made in violation of the Constitution.
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