Trump May Have Found a Way to Stack Commissions With 'Sympathetic' Nominees
"If the goal, as [White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon says, is 'deconstructing the administrative state' this would be a quick way to do it"
The Trump administration may have come up with "a way to get around" the tradition of bipartisan representation on federal commissions, the Huffington Post reported Wednesday, raising alarm that those panels could end up "being stacked with nominees sympathetic to the president."
The workaround could impact critical commissions including those governing election law (the Federal Election Commission, or FEC); financial regulation (the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC); and the internet (the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC).
According to HuffPo reporters Sam Stein and Ryan Grim:
By statute, these five- and six-member commissions can have no more than three members from the majority party. For six-member commissions, that assures bipartisan cooperation--or, as has happened at the FEC, utter gridlock. The narrow majority on five-member commissions requires a commission to govern closer to the center. A chair who loses just one vote from his or her own party loses everything.
Historically, the White House has largely deferred to Senate committees in naming a commission's minority party members. The nominees are then sent to the Senate as a pair as a means of expediting their confirmation.
But Democratic sources on the Hill worry that the Trump administration has conceived of a way to get around these norms. Although it can't stack commissions with more Republicans, it can replace Democrats with registered Independents who are ideologically conservative. One counsel to a Senate Democrat said the administration "may actually be able to do this legally." Others cautioned, that it's not yet clear if Trump will go down this path.
The New York Times similarly suggested last month that Trump may pursue this strategy, writing of the process to replace FEC commissioner Ann Ravel: "By tradition, Senate Democrats would be allowed to select the replacement, but, by law, the choice belongs to the president, and Mr. Trump has shown little interest in Washington customs."
The Times spoke to Richard L. Hasen, an election law scholar at the University of California, Irvine, who agreed that "Trump can pick a nominee himself so long as he does not choose a registered Republican."
According to the Times:
Mr. Hasen said he would not be surprised if Mr. Trump made the pick himself, especially because his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, was an election commissioner himself and has pushed fiercely for deregulating campaign finance.
"It would be transformative," Mr. Hasen said, if the president nominated someone more aligned with the panel's Republican members to push for even further deregulation.
Stein and Grim report that Trump on Tuesday pulled at least two pending nominees from various commissions, further indicating that the White House is looking to shake up the system.
Journalist and author David Dayen called the news a "huge deal," saying: "I thought a big push was needed to get [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] to put forward decent commission candidates. But Trump could cut him out entirely."
"[I]f the goal, as [White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon says, is 'deconstructing the administrative state' this would be a quick way to do it," Stein added on Twitter. Bannon said as much during an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month, as Common Dreams reported.
FINAL DAY! This is urgent.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just hours left in our Spring Campaign, we're still falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The Trump administration may have come up with "a way to get around" the tradition of bipartisan representation on federal commissions, the Huffington Post reported Wednesday, raising alarm that those panels could end up "being stacked with nominees sympathetic to the president."
The workaround could impact critical commissions including those governing election law (the Federal Election Commission, or FEC); financial regulation (the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC); and the internet (the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC).
According to HuffPo reporters Sam Stein and Ryan Grim:
By statute, these five- and six-member commissions can have no more than three members from the majority party. For six-member commissions, that assures bipartisan cooperation--or, as has happened at the FEC, utter gridlock. The narrow majority on five-member commissions requires a commission to govern closer to the center. A chair who loses just one vote from his or her own party loses everything.
Historically, the White House has largely deferred to Senate committees in naming a commission's minority party members. The nominees are then sent to the Senate as a pair as a means of expediting their confirmation.
But Democratic sources on the Hill worry that the Trump administration has conceived of a way to get around these norms. Although it can't stack commissions with more Republicans, it can replace Democrats with registered Independents who are ideologically conservative. One counsel to a Senate Democrat said the administration "may actually be able to do this legally." Others cautioned, that it's not yet clear if Trump will go down this path.
The New York Times similarly suggested last month that Trump may pursue this strategy, writing of the process to replace FEC commissioner Ann Ravel: "By tradition, Senate Democrats would be allowed to select the replacement, but, by law, the choice belongs to the president, and Mr. Trump has shown little interest in Washington customs."
The Times spoke to Richard L. Hasen, an election law scholar at the University of California, Irvine, who agreed that "Trump can pick a nominee himself so long as he does not choose a registered Republican."
According to the Times:
Mr. Hasen said he would not be surprised if Mr. Trump made the pick himself, especially because his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, was an election commissioner himself and has pushed fiercely for deregulating campaign finance.
"It would be transformative," Mr. Hasen said, if the president nominated someone more aligned with the panel's Republican members to push for even further deregulation.
Stein and Grim report that Trump on Tuesday pulled at least two pending nominees from various commissions, further indicating that the White House is looking to shake up the system.
Journalist and author David Dayen called the news a "huge deal," saying: "I thought a big push was needed to get [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] to put forward decent commission candidates. But Trump could cut him out entirely."
"[I]f the goal, as [White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon says, is 'deconstructing the administrative state' this would be a quick way to do it," Stein added on Twitter. Bannon said as much during an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month, as Common Dreams reported.
The Trump administration may have come up with "a way to get around" the tradition of bipartisan representation on federal commissions, the Huffington Post reported Wednesday, raising alarm that those panels could end up "being stacked with nominees sympathetic to the president."
The workaround could impact critical commissions including those governing election law (the Federal Election Commission, or FEC); financial regulation (the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC); and the internet (the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC).
According to HuffPo reporters Sam Stein and Ryan Grim:
By statute, these five- and six-member commissions can have no more than three members from the majority party. For six-member commissions, that assures bipartisan cooperation--or, as has happened at the FEC, utter gridlock. The narrow majority on five-member commissions requires a commission to govern closer to the center. A chair who loses just one vote from his or her own party loses everything.
Historically, the White House has largely deferred to Senate committees in naming a commission's minority party members. The nominees are then sent to the Senate as a pair as a means of expediting their confirmation.
But Democratic sources on the Hill worry that the Trump administration has conceived of a way to get around these norms. Although it can't stack commissions with more Republicans, it can replace Democrats with registered Independents who are ideologically conservative. One counsel to a Senate Democrat said the administration "may actually be able to do this legally." Others cautioned, that it's not yet clear if Trump will go down this path.
The New York Times similarly suggested last month that Trump may pursue this strategy, writing of the process to replace FEC commissioner Ann Ravel: "By tradition, Senate Democrats would be allowed to select the replacement, but, by law, the choice belongs to the president, and Mr. Trump has shown little interest in Washington customs."
The Times spoke to Richard L. Hasen, an election law scholar at the University of California, Irvine, who agreed that "Trump can pick a nominee himself so long as he does not choose a registered Republican."
According to the Times:
Mr. Hasen said he would not be surprised if Mr. Trump made the pick himself, especially because his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, was an election commissioner himself and has pushed fiercely for deregulating campaign finance.
"It would be transformative," Mr. Hasen said, if the president nominated someone more aligned with the panel's Republican members to push for even further deregulation.
Stein and Grim report that Trump on Tuesday pulled at least two pending nominees from various commissions, further indicating that the White House is looking to shake up the system.
Journalist and author David Dayen called the news a "huge deal," saying: "I thought a big push was needed to get [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] to put forward decent commission candidates. But Trump could cut him out entirely."
"[I]f the goal, as [White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon says, is 'deconstructing the administrative state' this would be a quick way to do it," Stein added on Twitter. Bannon said as much during an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month, as Common Dreams reported.