All Questions
13
questions
0
votes
1
answer
200
views
Hypothetical: Law passes House and Senate with VP tie-breaker. Then president dies before signing
The circumstances of "The American Rescue Plan" made me think of this. Suppose a bill passes both the House and the Senate, but with a 50-50 tie in the Senate such that the vice president ...
- 174
0
votes
1
answer
134
views
Who swears in the president if all of the sitting members of the Supreme Court are dead? [duplicate]
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is supposed to swear in president-elect of the United States. If there is no sitting Chief Justice, another member of the court would swear the president and ...
- 4,431
2
votes
1
answer
237
views
Does the Senate need supermajority or just a regular majority to prevent a convicted President from running for office again? [duplicate]
The Constitution allows the Senate to punish an impeached President with prevention from holding an important office in the future, do they need 2/3rds of the Senate to do this or 2/3rds for a ...
- 2,026
3
votes
1
answer
199
views
Is it possible for a president to circumvent the senate confirmation process by selectively firing some of the existing cabinet members?
The Senate has to approve a cabinet member's hiring, but not their firing. If the existing head of a cabinet is fired, acting heads are typically assigned based on a line of succession. In this ...
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Can the Acting President break ties in the Senate?
According to The New York Times, the Trump Administration is not currently planning to invoke the 25th Amendment and make Pence Acting President. But let's suppose they did.
Currently, the Senate is ...
- 9,423
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Will Trump's nominee list still be considered if he loses the elections? [duplicate]
Senator McConnell has already said that "President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate." According to the NY Times regarding McConnell's statement:
...
- 2,431
0
votes
1
answer
368
views
Is it tradition for the US President to nominate the apposing party leadership's suggestions for 2 opposite party FCC commissioners?
I was recently in an argument with someone who claimed that Obama put Aji Pal as the chairman, which isn't true, but he did put him as one of five commissioners. And I thought, why would Obama do ...
- 237
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Do elected officials need to pass background checks to obtain security clearances?
I was in the Navy and during my time I needed a background check to get the required security clearance. How does this work with elected officials? Can the president of the United States, senator, or ...
- 4,371
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why does the President appoint the heads of the Federal Reserve Banks?
Isn't the Federal Reserve supposed to be an independent central bank? So, independent of the Legislative and Executive branches? How is it independent if the President & Senate choose who leads ...
- 131
9
votes
1
answer
677
views
Why does the Senate have to approve a cabinet member's hiring, but not their firing?
In light of Rex Tillerson's firing, why does the Senate have to approve a cabinet member's hiring, but not their firing?
- 1,669
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
When was the last time that 19 Republican senators cross-the-aisle with a unified Democratic party on anything not bipartisan?
To impeach Trump, you would need a super-majority (2/3). That means 67 total senators. There are 46 Democrats, and 2 Independents. Assuming you had 100% support of the Democrats and Independents, you ...
- 4,287
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What does it mean for an investigation to be independent?
Everything coming out of the White House these days is begging for some kind of independent investigation. But what does that even mean? If I read that X politician or troubling scenario is being ...
- 1,627
15
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Can the Senate reject all cabinet nominees?
As all high government officials require the consent of the Senate, would it be possible for a opposition-held Senate to continuously reject the nominations by the President?
Senate confirmations ...
- 46.7k