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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'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.
servermsh
(913 posts)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)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)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)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)Its supposed to happen today or tomorrow.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)drray23
(7,638 posts)MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)TwilightZone
(25,493 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)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.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)Wow
Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)uponit7771
(90,367 posts)... was running shit he would've been then had that rule aboloished.
Moscow Mitch doesn't give a fuck
FBaggins
(26,774 posts)Yet they were forced into a similar power-sharing arrangement.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)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)have control now. It actually didnt take that long, given how slow government usually moves.