File this one in the “credit where credit is due” folder. Having finished their exhausting work on the debt ceiling question, the House of Representatives prepared to head out of town for more than a month. But before shutting off the lights and making good their escape, somebody had the foresight to remember one very important item.

After the House of Representatives passed the bill to extend the debt limit, it adjourned for the summer, but not before Republicans took advantage of a procedural move that will help block President Obama from making recess appointments during the upcoming break.

While the House will be adjourned, it will continue to hold so-called “pro forma” sessions throughout August. Though it’s the Senate that must confirm presidential appointments, under the U.S. Constitution, it cannot adjourn for more than three days without the approval of the House. Therefore, the House has maintained the ability to prevent the Senate from going into full recess, effectively blocking Obama from making recess appointments.

Fortunately, this is one area where even the Democrats will be too embarrassed to argue very much. That, of course, is because Harry Reid did the same thing to George W. Bush after taking the majority in the Senate in 2007.

I say “fortunately” because this is one of the few areas where legislative tricks of the trade have actually improved the operation of our government. The process of allowing presidential recess appointments is an antique which modern technology has rendered pointless. Yes, there was a time many generations ago when this power was arguably useful. It could take a long time to get Congress into session when you had to travel great distance literally using horse power. But that’s no longer the case today. In the event of an actual emergency you could have a sufficient number of members back in their seats and ready to screw everything up for us in 24 hours tops.

Unfortunately, there is no simple, permanent legislative remedy to the problem. The power is stubbornly enshrined in Article II, Section 2 of the constitution, so getting rid of it would take more willpower than we are likely able to summon up. But for now, encouraging each party to do this for as long as we have divided government is still an effective solution. The real question is, would they stick to their guns when we next go back to single party rule in both chambers and the White House? I’m dubious, at best.

UPDATE: We should also note that there will be one unintended consequence of this tactic, and Ed brought this point up last week. We still have Donald Berwick as the head of CMS, where he has been since his recess appointment more than one year ago. He has not only never been confirmed, but hasn’t even bothered to fill out his Senate questionnaire for the position. The double edged sword here is that the constitution specifies that these appointments are made by the president “granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.” If Congress had gone into full recess he would have been done, but since the session never technically ends, neither do the terms of any officials already in recess appointed positions.