WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) – US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday (April 15) to adjourn both houses of Congress – an unprecedented move that would likely raise a constitutional challenge – so that he can make appointments to government jobs without the approval of lawmakers.

“If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday during a White House press briefing.

“And perhaps it’s never been done before, nobody is even sure if it has, but we’re going to do it.”

During an adjournment, presidents can make temporary appointments without Senate approval.

It was not clear that a President has the authority to force Congress to adjourn, and Mr Trump would be sure to face fierce opposition to any such move from lawmakers at the Capitol.

Under the Constitution, the President does have the power to adjourn Congress “to such time as he shall think proper” when there is a disagreement between the House and Senate on when to adjourn.

But the Senate has not yet set a time for adjournment, and, like the House, has been engaging in pro-forma sessions every few days.

The practice was started in previous Congresses to prevent recess appointments. The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 unanimously against an end run around those pro forma sessions by President Barack Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has continued the fairly recent tradition of keeping the Senate in pro forma session during breaks.

The Senate began regularly holding pro forma sessions in late 2007. Both parties have used the tactic to block recess appointments by the President.

Mr Trump complained that Senate Democrats had prevented him from filling important jobs that will become even more necessary as the country tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a scam what they do,” Mr Trump said, adding that the Senate and the House can remain in session even when most of its members are not in Washington.

He said that Congress had “been warned”.

“We’ll probably be challenged in court and we’ll see who wins,” Mr Trump added.

An analysis by the National Constitution Centre says Article II, Section 3 invests the President with the discretion to convene Congress on “extraordinary occasions”, a power that has been used to call the chambers to consider nominations, war, and emergency legislation.

The centre says the same section further grants the President the authority to adjourn Congress whenever the chambers cannot agree when to adjourn, but that “that is a power that no President has ever exercised”.

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