Senate Ends Impasse on Committee Funding

Associated Press

[RCW2001]

Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 15, 2003; 9:16 PM

WASHINGTON –– Senate leaders reached agreement Wednesday on how the two parties will divide up committee funding, ending an impasse that had deflected the Senate from its legislative business and clouded the debut of new Majority Leader Bill Frist.

With the deal on committee organization, coming eight days after the 108th Congress opened, committee chairmanships will finally be turned over to the new Republican majority and 11 Senate freshmen will get their promised seats on the 20 Senate committees.

Frist, R-Tenn., said the deal was fair to both sides, and, with it done, the Senate can begin to "accomplish what we are all about, which is to proceed with the nation's business."

The completion of that normally routine housekeeping chore removes a distraction that had postponed hearings still nominally under Democratic chairmen and delayed action on a $385 billion catchall spending bill for the fiscal year starting last Oct. 1. The last Congress failed to act on the legislation to fund non-defense federal agencies.

The dispute made for a contentious start to the new session and its new leader, Frist, with Democrats claiming they were being treated unfairly and Republicans accusing Democrats of ignoring the results of last November's election that put the GOP back in the majority.

There was never a problem with numbers: In the last Congress, Democrats held a one-seat advantage on committees and in this session, Republicans will gain a one-seat edge.

But Democrats said that traditional committee funding ratios, where the minority got as little as one-third of the money going to each committee, was no longer relevant in light of the last Congress when the funds were divided nearly equally.

The 107th Congress began in a 50-50 tie, and the parties agreed to a formula of near parity in seats, funds and space. There were only minor changes in the funding ratio when Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., left the Republicans and shifted power to the Democrats.

Under the agreement outlined in a joint leadership letter, committee budgets will reflect the current ratio of the Senate, where Republicans have 51 seats and the Democrats, with Jeffords, have 49. An additional 10 percent will be given to the Republican chairman of each committee for administrative expenses.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said the agreement was "the mirror image of the resolution we passed in the 107th Congress," when Democrats were up by 51-49. "We are very pleased with the outcome of the negotiations." Daschle said he hoped the precedent of committee structures being proportionate to Senate seats would continue in the future.

As in the past, individual committees will still be able to make adjustments in the formula.

© 2003 The Associated Press

[dfwgator]

Yep. The GOP pisses on our legs, then tells us it's raining.

[Keith]

Ok...let's take a deep breath...we are going to get Hussein...Dubya is going to give a great SOTU...we are going to replace Rehnquist, O'Connor, and Ginsberg with YOUNG CONSERVATIVE USSC JUSTICES...ones who are going to be there a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time.

Then we are going to add 4-6 seats to our Senate majority in LESS than two years...

Let's just keep our eyes focused on the horizon, not the white dotted lines next to the wheels...

[EDINVA]

my dear, no one is 'screaming and moaning' or 'bitching and moaning ... merely telling how the Hill works in real life. A regretable reality is that while the Senators may vote, and staffers don't, it is a a fact that staffers do the work while the Honorables are out at fundraisers, or glad-handing each other, constituents, and lobbyists.

It is staffers who develop the agenda ... to keep HUNDREDS of Democratic committee staffers under this plan merely allows a D stalemate. It repudiates the GOP's hard won majority status.

Do you really think the Senators come up with their OWN questions at hearings? Do you? DO you think they actually write legislation? Do you think they research, much less write, their own speeches? Do you think most of them even READ the legislation they are about to vote on? But that that were the case!

You want, say, Pickering on the Court? Ok. Now, how many D staffers on the Judiciary Committee - who would have been let go but for this wonderful deal - will be devoted to researching his life to achieve his political, judicial and personal destruction? to track down everyone on God's Green Earth who bears a grudge against him? to work with and prepare witnesses who will testify against him?

Are you starting to understand? Staffers are VERY important, and thanks to this great deal, there will now be HUNDREDS of them on the Hill who would not otherwise be there. Some victory !

[Political Junkie Too]

GET THE GOP TO RENEGE ON THE DEAL!!! It is not voted on yet ... time to force the Senate to go back to 1/3 2/3

You mean the Republicans should do a Hillary! and agree to a deal and then try to amend it on the floor? It would be great to see the Democrats scurry after that one. I bet they'd never see it coming.

I can hear Daschle squealing now. "It was one thing when we did it on day one, but it's just not fair for the Majority Leader to do this."

-PJ

[cardinal4]

The article is confusing to me. It seems like a 60-40 in one sense and 50-50 in another. I spent the last two days calling Senators offices complaining about the impasse and Hillary Clinton on the Armed Services Comm. I guess Ill be on the phone all day again.....

[cardinal4]

Out of curiousity, someone said the formula was 60-40, and someone else said it was really 56-44. Which is it?

I can figure it out either.

[DAnconia55]

Under the agreement outlined in a joint leadership letter, committee budgets will reflect the current ratio of the Senate, where Republicans have 51 seats and the Democrats, with Jeffords, have 49. An additional 10 percent will be given to the Republican chairman of each committee for administrative expenses.

BWHAHAHAHAH.... they caved.

Can't you people just STOP voting for Republicans already? They're NEVER going to develop balls.

[DAnconia55]

Anything more than 66/33 - which has 100 years historical precedent is caving to the Demons.

No matter how it is reported. Facts are Facts.

[DAnconia55]

You're spinning like Carville and Begala. ,p> You're right.

FR GOPers are using the same tactics the Demons did in the Mediscare debate.

"It's a cut" !!! LOL... pathetic, really.

[DAnconia55]

Simple math....they have 10% more than they had

So, if you made $50,000 a year.... and were due for a raise to $100,0000.

When I mug you, as long as I leave you with $75,000, you'll be happy? Right? After all, it's more than you had.

[xzins]

Find me a case where the Senate was split 51-49 PRIOR TO THIS CASE and the budgets were divided 66-33.

Find one DURING the span of this current FILIBUSTER RULE, and I'll admit I'm wrong.

The problem, my friend, is the FILIBUSTER RULE. It is not anything else.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I hope I'm wrong, but it looks as if Senator Frist CAVED.

Indeed. Not a good start for the elected GOP majority.

[hobbes1]

OEB....You should read from a more informed source to get the truth first.(Fox, Wash Times)

Excluding Staff (No Layoffs for dem staffers) the Split is 60-40. I would put that in the Win Column.

[hardhead]

Sorry, but its over. That's how communists work - they take a little bit at a time until they have achieved what they want. The republicans (small r) are done for. This was probably the beginning of the end for this great republic. I give it 10 years until it is totally socialist - if that long.

[Pietro]

"Democrats had threatened to filibuster anything less than that"

I think it's time we let the freakin' idiots filibuster. It's coming sooner or later anyways. If they filibuster simple procedural matters like this they'll get less and less simpathy w/ each act. Let the American people decide just whose interests the dems are serving.

Hey Frist, call their bluff, they got nothin'.

[mwl1]

Specter will play ball. Dubya wants the judges, and Dubya gets what he wants or he's going to use the bully pulpit and his political capital to get Senators who will give him what he wants. After 2002, no Senator is going to cross Dubya without thinking that over.

You are correct. Specter has to play ball for two reasons: he is likely gonna face a primary challenge from the right in 2004; and he has to keep GWB happy if he wants to succeed Hatch as judiciary chair down the road.

[mwl1]

The point also should be made to the critics here that Schumer's funding is a small point... the real money against Bush's judges is coming from Ralph Neas' organization and other leftist groups... totally separate from congressional funding.

[SuziQ]

Oh I understand completely. Dem. staffers can crawl under any rock they want to and dig up as much dirt as they want to, but when push comes to shove, it is the Senator who casts the vote, and he or she will do that, usually after careful consideration of how that vote will affect his or her re-election.

Do YOU think that there is any more about Pickering that they haven't already put out there? They believed they had him down and out in the last session. THAT'S where they had underestimated the American People! Now if we concentrate on increasing those Republican numbers in the Senate in 2004, we won't have to be sitting here two years from now nit-picking the Senators or the Repubs. and they can do their jobs without having to worry about how slim their margin is! We won't be able to do that by getting folks all hot and bothered against the Repubs. because of their handling of an administrative problem!

My guess is that Frist is still waking a tightrope hoping that none of the RINOS will be convinced to do what 'Jumpin Jim' Jeffords did, though all those RINOS would have to do is to look at how irrelevant that man is today and that should be enough to dissuade them.

I'm not discounting the strength of the staffers, I'm just saying that when push comes to shove, it comes down to numbers of votes. The staffers DON'T vote.

[FairOpinion]

Let's just keep our eyes focused on the horizon, not the white dotted lines next to the wheels...
----

I know what you mean - some of you are making the point that this is not that big a deal.
Have you ever heard of the camel's nose in the tent?
Gee, we shouldn't worry, the camel only stuck its nose into our tent -- the Dems only got their noses into the Rep. tent.

The Dems keeping chipping away at the power of the Republicans.

[Nonstatist]

Out of curiousity, someone said the formula was 60-40, and someone else said it was really 56-44. Which is it?

The latter.

They split the budget, save 10 %, by 51 to 49 %. The remaining 10 % goes to the Pubbies

so..Pubbies = .51*.90 + .1 = .559 or 55.9 %, with the remaining 44.1 % to the Democraps...

Regards! :>)