President-elect Donald J. Trump is threatening to challenge the institution’s historic role, and the Constitution, with his prospective nominees and threats to push the boundaries of executive authority.
Reporting from the Capitol
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s determination to crash over traditional governmental guardrails will present a fundamental test of whether the Republican-controlled Senate can maintain its constitutional role as an independent institution and a check on presidential power.
With Mr. Trump putting forward a raft of contentious prospective nominees and threatening to challenge congressional authority in other ways, Republicans who will hold the majority come January could find themselves in the precarious position of having to choose between standing up for their institution or bowing to a president dismissive of government norms.
The clearest and most immediate point of tension is likely to be Mr. Trump’s efforts to skip the Senate’s traditional confirmation process to install loyalists, including some with checkered backgrounds, in his cabinet. But the president-elect has also signaled he expects Republicans on Capitol Hill to accede to his wishes on policy, even if that means ceding Congress’s control over federal spending. Both are powers explicitly given to the legislative branch in the Constitution.
Lawmakers and analysts say allowing Mr. Trump to erode the Senate’s authority to pass judgment on nominees by sidestepping it through recess appointments or watered-down background checks could do permanent damage to the Senate and undermine the constitutional system.
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“It is the central pillar in the checks-and-balances system,” said Ira Shapiro, a former longtime Senate staffer and author of three books on the institution. “There is nothing more central to the Senate’s role than the advice and consent authority.”
The Constitution explicitly gives the legislative branch of government control over federal spending and the power to approve cabinet
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