President Bush plans to press the Senate for movement on filling vacancies at the Federal Election Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Consumer Product Safety Commission, among others.  These agencies are issuing non-binding decisions and falling behind on their internal agendas because they can’t put together a quorum of commissioners to make binding decisions.  But it looks like politics is at the heart of the problem.  The Senate is delaying confirmations in part because they now hope for a Democratic president in 2009, allowing Dems to appoint a majority of commission members.  The White House, for its part, is sending nominees that the Democratic Senate refuses to confirm for ideological reasons (which is the Senate’s prerogative).  The result is a general abdication of responsibility for the public business.  Read Kara Scannell, Amy Schatz, and Damian Palletta here.

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