Article 2 Section3 – USA Gov Policy

In the midst of one of the most severe challenges the United States has faced in decades, Congress has ceased functioning, and members, especially the leadership, have gone home, leaving vital legislative needs unresolved. It is a dereliction of duty to the most extraordinary degree. While American families and small businesses seek ways to survive economically daily, their elected representatives are on an extended vacation at least until May 4.

Nancy Pelosi and other legislative leaders have not even had the dignity to honestly admit that they have abandoned the citizenry in their time of need, maintaining a dishonest façade of being in session in only the most technical terms. This has prevented the Executive Branch from engaging in the appointment functions constitutionally provided to it to administer to immediate needs while the legislature is in recess. An angered President Trump stated that ““The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty the American people can’t afford during this crisis.”

The use of pro forma sessions effectively prevents the White House from even temporarily filling positions that require Congressional approval. A 2014 Supreme Court ruling addressed that issue, finding that as long as a pro forma session continues, a president cannot make a recess appointment.

President Trump has threatened to address that façade by exercising the powers granted go him by Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution:

“… he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.”

Despite the protestations by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and their sycophants in the media and academia, the wording of Article 2, Section 3 is absolutely clear and unambiguous. Can anyone seriously argue that the COVID-19 plague is not an “extraordinary occasion”?

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In addition to the current, stunning neglect of duty, the utter abandonment of the needs of the tens of millions of Americans and their enterprises who require Congress to do its legislative functions during this crisis period, the current leadership of the House of Representatives has long-sought to disrupt the functioning of the Executive Branch. The fraudulent charges against the Trump campaign and the President himself, all of which have been thoroughly disproven after a lengthy and aggressive investigation, has received exceptional news coverage. Less discussed has been the attempts to sabotage, and that word is used in its full legal and practical sense, the duly elected Administration in two ways using personnel policy.

The first is the most apparent, and is the immediate spark that resulted in Trump’s fury: the failure to confirm presidential appointments. Currently, about 85 appointments remain unaddressed. Much less discussed is the success that Obama had in insuring that left wing personnel survived into the Trump Administration.

Key positions within essential agencies, such as the State Department and the Department of Justice, have been held by individuals less loyal to either the Trump Administration or, more importantly, the Constitution, than to the Democratic Party and leftist ideals. They have sought to nullify the effects of the 2016 election by thwarting the policies voters supported when they voted for a change in Washington.

Much of this became public during the Russian Collusion hearings, when some of these individuals vented their frustration, testifying that Trump refused to take their advice. One assumes these bureaucrats forgot or didn’t care that it was their duty to obey the elected President, not the other way around.

Congress needs to either end these artificial “pro forma” sessions and let the White House do its job, or do what they were elected to do, come back to Washington, and get back to work. Unless they do, history will long note that in a time of unprecedented crisis, the American people were abandoned by their legislators.

Illustration: The painting depicts Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. (Architect of the Capitol)

Quick Analysis

Russia Expanding Aggression

President Putin is using more than one pathway to enter Europe and undermine the West. While most of the world watches the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, the Russian government is actively pursuing a second front in a little noticed campaign in Cyprus. Although the corrupt Cypriot government ended its issuance of “golden passports” in 2020, Russian intelligence is functioning quietly there to transform this EU country into a Russian beachhead of illicit economic activity aimed at penetrating the capitalist West, according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. Cyprus is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it receive as much attention as those countries who are member states. That adds to its allure as a prime location for Russia to attempt to gain a European foothold. Last week a NATO report, cited in the European Daily Monitor, noted that Russian intelligence agents have been plotting to destroy European infrastructure across the continent to disrupt states supporting Ukraine. It further suggests that Putin’s immediate goal is to lay the framework for a future move against the security organization’s members. Hungary, in particular, is another country garnering Moscow’s attention as it opposes the Western response to Russian aggression. Russia is focusing its intelligence efforts on other European, non-NATO member countries in addition to Cyprus, including Austria, Malta, and Ireland. The NATO report suggests that Moscow has had success in disseminating the Russian political narrative in these states to advance its campaign against the West. The island of Cyprus is proving to be a good target for Moscow as it is an ethnically divided island that is part of the EU since 2004. Northern Cyprus, officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that is only recognized by Turkey. The division precludes it from joining NATO. As Goble suggests, “it offers Russia troubled waters in which to fish.” Over the last 20 years, he points out, Cyprus’ challenges have opened it to a massive influx of Russian citizens, who now comprise approximately 10 percent of the island state’s population. Over 2,900 residents are Russians who entered until the “golden passport” program that allowed wealthy or well-connected Russians to move to Cyprus. It also provided them with documentation to travel freely throughout Europe! Although less visible on the world’s radar than the war in Ukraine, Moscow is also being helped by Cyprus’ banks opposition to seizing Russian assets and its support in evading Western sanctions. Russia has placed tens of billions of US Dollars there for money laundering. It has been more than two years since a single Russian “diplomat” has been deported and, in fact, the Embassy has grown to over 300 staffers on this tiny island state of only 1.2 million people. The Russian embassy in Nicosia has advanced communications antennae on its roof and opened a consulate on the northern end of the island. Moscow’s Ambassador, Mura Zyazikov, is a lieutenant general in the FSB with no diplomatic experience. The FSB, SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service), and GRU are actively using the island as a base of operations against NATO Member states, Israel, and other Western allies. Moscow backs pro-Russian political parties who in turn influence Cypriot decisions on education, language, and other issues. “Dmitry Khmelnitsky of the Dossier Center says that its findings should be of concern not only to Cyprus but to the West as a whole. Those who ignore what Moscow is doing because Cyprus does not follow the EU sanctions regime are missing something critical,” says Goble. “Cyprus does not seek to get rid of Russian agents and does not interfere with their work,” Khmelnitsky concludes, “despite the fact that what the Kremlin is doing is so clearly visible.” This has an impact not only on the small island but on the EU, NATO, and the West in general. Earlier this year the Moscow Times reported that when the FBI became more interested in Russian business and oligarchs in Cyprus, at least 10 of the major Russian businesses operating there left. Despite the government of Cyprus’ vow to implement plans for new sanctions against Russia, it continues to ignore Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine and to shield the wealth of the 50,000 wealthy Russian citizens and oligarchs residing there. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay