Under
Article II, Section 3 of the
U.S. Constitution the
President of the United States technically has the authority to adjourn the
United States Congress "to such Time as he shall think proper" when it is unable to agree on a time of
adjournment. However, this is a procedural ability that has so far never been used. The members of the
Constitutional Convention agreed to limit executive authority in order to prevent autocracy. In
Federalist No. 69,
Alexander Hamilton differentiated the President's authority to prorogue Congress from the
King of Great Britain's ability to
dissolve Parliament. On April 15, 2020, while Congress was in
recess due to the
COVID-19 pandemic but still holding
pro forma sessions, President
Donald Trump threatened to use the presidential prerogative powers to
adjourn both the
House of Representatives and the
Senate in order to make
recess appointments for positions such as
Director of National Intelligence and the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, citing what he argued was
obstructionism and extreme
partisanship from the
Democratic Party. However, constitutional law experts and politicians have argued that President Trump did not have the constitutional authority to do so under those conditions, as both houses had agreed on a date of adjournment, and President Trump's argument that the President can force Congress to adjourn was widely condemned by both Republicans and Democrats. In order to prorogue Congress, the Senate would have to set a different date of adjournment than the House of Representatives. Although President Trump called on the Senate to set a new adjournment date,
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that he would not alter the planned adjournment date of January 3, 2021, and any motion to alter the date would require the approval of
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic members of the Senate through the
Senate Standing Rules. ==See also==