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Define lame duck politician8/3/2023 It was a lame duck Congress that tried to cover up Watergate. We’re going to keep using the US as an example. Pretty big decisions can come out of the lame duck period. Lame Ducks Do WalkĪctually, some of them fly. Secondly, being on their way out with a successor already named, the influence of lame duck politicians is curbed as people already start moving on and getting ready for their new boss. For starters, there’s just not a lot of time to get sweeping agenda items done (if you’re the president of the United States you had four or eight years anyway, a couple months isn’t going to be the make-or-break). You know the ones.īy definition these lame duck officers are named so because their days in office are numbered because they’re on their way out their capabilities are quite limited. Unless they happen to be one of the handful of truly awful ones. Because new members of Congress similarly are elected in November and take office in January, “lame duck” applies to them as well–there’s just not as much media cut-through for Congresspeople. It gets tossed around until the next president officially takes office the following January. You will most often hear the term “lame duck” applied to American presidents after presidential elections conclude in November. “Lame duck” is also something we often hear when it comes to political representatives leaving office, so where did the phrase actually come from? What is a lame duck? Presidents and Politicians If that was the definition you were looking for though, your reading for the day is done we suppose. As to whether a president can pardon themselves during a lame duck session, that question has not yet been addressed in the courts.Alright for everyone who saw the title and said “well obviously it’s a duck that can’t walk ” just because you’re correct doesn’t mean you’re interesting. Outgoing president Bill Clinton was widely criticized for issuing 140 pardons at the end of his term. One final power of the president that is often invoked in the lame duck era is granting pardons. The problem the president runs into during the lame duck session is that a lot of times the executive branch isn't around because they’re taking their holiday vacation. They can issue executive orders and agreements, and they can issue orders to the rest of the executive branch. Presidents have the same powers as during the rest of their administration. What can presidents do during the lame duck session? Support Civics 101 with a donation - this work is important, but it's not free to make We saw this in Wisconsin in 2018 when an outgoing GOP congress worked overnight to pass laws limiting the incoming Democratic governor’s power. And while that’s fairly rare on a national level, state and local legislatures also have lame duck sessions, and it’s not uncommon for them to pass laws that are not popular with the public, especially if that state’s House or Senate is going to flip on January 3rd. They can pass unpopular legislation, because their actions are no longer electorally accountable. They would hold pro-forma sessions, where the vice president (as president of the Senate) would take the train to Washington DC, gavel the Senate into session, ask if anyone had Senate business, adjourn, and head back home.īut Congress is not entirely powerless during a lame duck session. To get around this, Congress in the 1970s started never not being around. Also, when the president makes appointments when Congress isn’t in session, they don’t need Senate confirmation. But if they don’t sign it and Congress is not in session, it does not become a law. Before the 1970s, presidents sometimes used their “pocket veto.” If a president doesn’t sign a bill into law and congress is in session, it automatically becomes a law. In the modern era, not a whole heck of a lot. What can Congress do during a lame duck session?
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