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MoonRiver

(36,926 posts)
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:14 AM Feb 2021

I'm sorry but I still don't get it.

We won the Senate. Schumer is majority leader. Yet we still don't control the committees, and Repukes continue to set the committee agendas. It's especially galling that Merrick Garland's confirmation is deliberately being stalled.

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servermsh

(913 posts)
1. So far, Democrats have chosen not to execute the "nuclear option" for the organizing resolution
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:17 AM
Feb 2021

Democrats could have taken control of the committees on January 20th. They have the power to do it, assuming all 50 agreed.

FBaggins

(26,774 posts)
7. It's far more complicated than that
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:23 AM
Feb 2021

The "minority" party in a 50/50 senate has an enormous amount of power. Not as much as the "majority" party, but far more than the minority party in a 53/47 senate.

This isn't just republicans telling "give us what we want!" and democrats not having the guts to slap them down. There are things that democrats want too - that they can only have if a deal is made.

This isn't something new.

servermsh

(913 posts)
9. "that they can only have if a deal is made" ?
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:26 AM
Feb 2021

Please explain why they can't put everything they want into the organizing resolution then use the nuclear option to pass it.

FBaggins

(26,774 posts)
16. Because the VP isn't going to spend all day / every day in the Senate
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 11:30 AM
Feb 2021

The majority leader only has the power that he has because he has 51 votes sitting behind his decisions.

In a 50/50 senate, he only has that when the VP is physically present (along with every democrat of course).

As to why they can't use the nuclear option to change that? Simple... because they don't have 51 votes for the nuclear option.

drray23

(7,638 posts)
2. the vote for the senate reorganization has not been taken yet.
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:17 AM
Feb 2021

Its supposed to happen today or tomorrow.

Ferrets are Cool

(21,110 posts)
10. This is all I could find, and it doesn't answer the question.
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:29 AM
Feb 2021


Republicans and Democrats generally know how many seats they will receive in each committee before Congress convenes. Third party and independent legislators may be assigned to committees through either party. The parties select their desired committee appointments through a system which allows experienced legislators first choice of appointments by seniority. In most cases, legislators opt to stay on the committees they served in previous sessions of Congress. A drawing is held to determine the order in which new legislators may pick committee assignments. After all committee assignments are chosen within the parties, the parties' senators and representatives vote on whether to approve the slate of appointees. Once each party has approved its slate of appointees, they are presented to the full House or Senate for approval. Approval votes – both within the parties and before the legislative bodies – are usually approved without significant opposition.

uponit7771

(90,367 posts)
15. people who honor senate rules which doesn't include kGOP. I'm pissed at this too, if Moscow Mitch
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 11:26 AM
Feb 2021

... was running shit he would've been then had that rule aboloished.

Moscow Mitch doesn't give a fuck

FBaggins

(26,774 posts)
8. Republicans said the same thing in 2000
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 10:24 AM
Feb 2021

Yet they were forced into a similar power-sharing arrangement.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
13. What's not to understand? They have power also. Democracy
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 11:17 AM
Feb 2021

isn't a winner-take-all/everyone else is screwed system. It was designed to give bigger majorities chosen by the people more power than little ones, but most often some power to all by various mechanisms that force compromise and agreement.

But we don't have a bigger majority. We have just barely, barely enough to push the system our direction against those pushing the other way -- a lot of the time, and now and then someone will support the other side of an issue and power will shift.

What's gone wrong with congress isn't that everyone has some power or that we have to cooperate but that today's Republicans are misusing their power in ways and to a degree the framers didn't anticipate.

We are SO fortunate to have gotten our skin-of-our-teeth majority and can still accomplish a great deal. Perhaps just as important, given what they've become and have been doing, the Republicans canNOT.

Turin_C3PO

(14,083 posts)
14. Just announced that we officially
Wed Feb 3, 2021, 11:18 AM
Feb 2021

have control now. It actually didn’t take that long, given how slow government usually moves.

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