Clinton Letter Ends Impasse on Nominees

WASHINGTON — President Clinton promised Wednesday to give the Senate more advance notice of key appointments he plans while Congress is in recess, ending a political battle with lawmakers that had threatened to bottle up a spate of nominations for major posts.

The flap arose earlier this month after Clinton, seeking to get around Republican opposition to his proposed appointment of San Francisco philanthropist and gay activist James C. Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg, announced the nomination while Congress was out of town.

Clinton had made a previous recess appointment, which bypasses the Senate’s confirmation powers, in late 1997, when he named Los Angeles attorney Bill Lann Lee as acting assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Clinton made his promise to give the Senate more notice on recess appointments in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.). A few minutes after the letter arrived, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) lifted a “hold” that he had imposed on Senate action on all presidential appointments following the Hormel nomination.

The Senate Finance Committee scheduled a hearing today on the nomination of Lawrence M. Summers as secretary of the Treasury, the highest-level post to be affected by the impasse. Summers is to replace outgoing Secretary Robert E. Rubin. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also will begin a series of hearings today affecting Clinton’s nomination of Richard C. Holbrooke as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Under the law for recess appointments, both Hormel and Lee may continue in office without Senate confirmation through the end of 2000, just before Clinton leaves office.