Senate Remains In Session To Prevent Recess Appointments Of Surgeon General, Others

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 27 Nov 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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Senate Democrats are holding pro-forma sessions during the Thanksgiving recess to prevent the Bush administration from making high-level recess appointments while Congress is adjourned, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A small number of Democratic senators kept the Senate open by "gaveling the non-voting sessions in and out twice" during the week, according to the Journal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the sessions are being held as part of an effort to prevent "controversial recess appointments," including the potential appointment of James Holsinger, President Bush's nominee for U.S. surgeon general (Wall Street Journal, 11/23).

The term of the previous surgeon general, Richard Carmona, expired last year, and Bush nominated Holsinger in May. Some lawmakers and gay and lesbian advocacy groups have raised concern about his position on gay-rights issues. Holsinger has served as secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and as chancellor of the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. He also had a 26-year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/13). Holsinger drew criticism for a 1991 paper on the "pathophysiology of male homosexuality," according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the session's presiding officer, said, "We're preserving the Constitution," adding, "It's appropriate given how (the Bush administration) is abusing the confirmation process."

Bush previously has made 165 recess appointments, ranking him fourth behind former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, according to the Monitor (Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, 11/21).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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