They would have multiple options for what they could possibly do with two vacancies; I am not suggesting an uncontested principal nomination or anything like that; they could have split slates, etc. Even so, it's one thing to be told told a "we can't do this because this isn't fair to everyone else" as you suggest but I was instead told "the 118th Congress has not authorized the nomination process" and "we don't have any slots" both of which I later found to be untrue.
I'm going to sound a bit harsh here but that's my way as an ALO: I answer questions, and the candidate needs to be ready to hear the answer.
You received the answer from your MOC's office.
That's it. It's done.
A MOC has no requirement to fill ANY of their slots. No legal requirement at all. There have been MOC's in a HUGE Western state that, objecting to the military for whatever reason, chose not to nominate ANY students to ANY SA. And this was not that long ago. I remember I, and a WHOLE lot of ALOs and B&GOs, and FFRs were LIVID! However, that is the purveyance of the MOC.
As to what you were told by your MOC's office; CaptMJ and Stealth_81 gave you good and on-point answers. Whether or not Congress has to "authorize" anything, I don't know. I searched 10 U.S. Code §XXXX (meaning a LOT of sections) as well as 32CFRXXXX and found no definitive requirement for a "declaration by the Congress" that nominations are now "authorized." Per those sections, once a member is sworn in, they have the full authority to make nominations.
And I confirmed that there is NO legal/statutory
requirement for a MOC (House or Senate) to make nominations. It's their choice. I imagine this is one of the reasons every MOC I've worked with has always left one open slot each year, to ensure they had the ability to nominate students each year.
You have your answer. It's done. It's not what you wanted to hear, I get that. I've been on the "other side" of the discussion...only mine was a thin envelope with a letter telling, in essence: NO.
This is a bump in the road.
Time to step back, reassess, and attack your follow-up plan!
Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83