Understanding Recess Appointments as President Trump Prepares for Second Term

Normally, under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, senior positions in the federal government are filled by officers who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Congress creates federal offices by passing laws, and specifies for each officer whether or not they require Senate confirmation. These senior officials are called “principal officers” in constitutional law, and of the 4,100 or so political appointees in the executive branch, there are 1,200 such senior positions. Lower-ranking positions are “inferior officers” that do not require the Senate.

But the Framers who wrote the Constitution foresaw that the Senate would often not be in session. Their solution was that the Recess Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution empowers the president to fill high-ranking positions without Senate confirmation under certain circumstances.

These recess appointments last throughout whatever annual session Congress is currently in, plus the next session. So, for example, any recess appointments made at any point in 2025 would last until Congress finishes in 2026 session sometime in December 2026. In other words, a recess appointment can last for almost two years — which is half of a presidential term.

Recess appointments are in the news as President Trump weighs his options for staffing up his administration, including the possibility of recess appointments. This strategy is the predictable result of Democrat obstruction in recent years.

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