The Problem
Congress created the Office of the Attorney General in 1789 and the DOJ in 1870. Both items are not embedded in the Constitution but are creatures of the Congress.
Currently Congress has no control over DOJ. The President has sole control of DOJ. DOJ must be made accountable to both parties of Congress since the President can be corrupt. As per the statutes, the President nominates the Attorney General and all other DOJ political appointments, including appointments in all DOJ component departments (i.e.: FBI, DEA, and others). They are then subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Solution
The law needs to be amended to require a two-thirds Senate approval vote for the confirmation of these positions as opposed to the current +50% level.
In addition, the confirmation must be only valid for 365 days.
The confirmation must be renewed by two thirds of the Senate every year within 60 days of the end of the 365 days.
If the confirmation is not renewed within 365 days, the appointment is immediately terminated as of the 366th day, and the office holder is ineligible for any appointed federal position for the duration of the president’s term.
The person can, however, return to his/her previous non-appointed position.
Temporary Appointments
Because the Senate has problems with confirming appointments, there needs to be a temporary appointment process.
Beginning at the start of the President’s term, all appointed positions at the DOJ (all departments and offices, i.e., FBI, Marshals, DEA, others) are considered empty and awaiting nomination and confirmation.
The two senators who are majority and minority leaders (when 50-50, majority goes to VP’s party) will make temporary appointments to all open positions picking from permanent DOJ employees.
All the positions will be listed by statute in order of authority within DOJ. For equal ranked positions they will be listed randomly by statute. New or eliminated appointed positions at DOJ are automatically either added to the end of the list or removed from the list of appointed positions at DOJ.
The majority leader will make temporary appointments for odd numbered positions, and the minority leader will make a temporary appointment for even numbered positions.
- Temporary appointments will be valid for 90 days.
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A person can refuse a temporary appointment.
- A person can only hold a temporary appointment once during the term of the President.
- Upon the confirmation of a permanent appointment, the associated temporary appointment is automatically terminated.
- Upon the end of the 90-day period of any temporary appointment because there was no permanent confirmation, the senator who made the original temporary appointment will make a new temporary appointment.
- Upon the termination of a temporary appointment the persom automatically returns to his/her previous permanent position.
- Any one person can only be appointed to one 90-day temporary appointment during the term of the sitting President.
- Any person who fails to be reconfirmed by the Senate is ineligible for a temporary appointment at the DOJ.
- A person appointed to a temporary position at DOJ during a President’s term is eligible for permanent DOJ appointments.
Conclusion
The President can terminate a confirmed appointee, but the subsequent nomination will be subject to the two-thirds approval of the Senate and the temporary appointment process.
The purpose of these reforms is to make DOJ subject to both bipartisan Senate control as well as Presidential control. This in turn protects the country from a corrupt President.
