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fastrock
Lt.Jg.
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 122
Location: Union, KY
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 Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 7:05 pm Post subject: How are Senate committee chairs selected? |
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I can see Sen. Arlen Specter as being another Tom Daschle i.e obstructionist. An article I read is he wants judges who can interpolate the Constitution. This from the guy that sited a 14 century Scottish law to not vote for Clinton's impeachment.
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Bystander
PO3
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 271
Location: MI
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| Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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Arlen Specter has always been a RINO. Don't doubt he'll be the next one to jump ship if he doesn't get his way. I thought Chairmanships were assigned by the Senate Leader, in this case Frist. I believe he gives consideration to seniority, but think he can assign anyone he wants to whatever chairmanship where he feels they'll be most effective. Could be proven wrong as I have many times in the past. 
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No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
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peter
Lieutenant
Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 214
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| Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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I'm confused, I would think Orin Hatch would be selected as the Judical Chairman.
Arlen Spector did a GREAT job during the Thomas confirmation, but has been a diaster before and a total diaster after.
Bush campaines HARD for him during his primary (against a conservative republican) and the day after he gets elected he stabs Bush in the back.
What a piece of garbage. |
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Anker-Klanker
Admiral
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1033
Location: Richardson, TX
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| Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:59 am Post subject: |
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From the Senate's own web page:
| Quote: | Appointment
Most new members arrive at the Senate with a "wish list" of committee assignments. They recognize that appointment to committees with a special impact on the interests of their states and regions can promote their own legislative effectiveness. For Senate party leaders, the committee appointment process offers a means of promoting party discipline through the granting or withholding of desired assignments.
Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Senate made committee appointments either by vote of the full body or decision of its presiding officer. The first method proved inordinately time consuming; the second provoked controversy and dissatisfaction. Finally, in 1846, members agreed to a procedure under which both political parties within the Senate would submit for the full body's approval a slate of members to fill the various committee seats. This new plan fostered development of Senate party conferences (Democrats informally use the designation "caucus"). Independents and members of third parties have received committee assignments through one or the other of the major party conferences.
In the practice of recent years, party conferences convene before the start of each new Congress to elect leaders and determine committee assignments. Each party conference appoints a "committee on committees" to prepare a roster of members it wishes named to the party's specifically allotted committee seats. The percentage of a party's representation within the Senate determines the percentage of seats it will gain on each committee, although exact numbers are subject to negotiation between party floor leaders.
Party conference rules provide that each newly elected senator may choose a committee assignment before any other newly elected member is allowed to make a second committee choice. New senators make their selections according to a priority system that gives first choice to those who have previously served in the Senate, then to those with prior House service, and finally to those who served as their state's governor. All other new members have their order of choice determined by random drawing.
The Role of Seniority in Selection of Chairmen and Ranking Members
Traditionally, the majority party member with the greatest seniority on a particular committee serves as its chairman. When the Republican party gained the majority in 1995, it altered its conference rules to allow Republicans on individual committees to vote by secret ballot for their committee's chairman, irrespective of that member's seniority. This adjustment was a logical consequence of the party's larger decision to place a six-year term limit on the service of its chairmen or, when in the minority, its ranking members.
Service
Senate Rule XXIV specifies that committee chairmen and members be appointed on the authority of a Senate Resolution, unless otherwise ordered. The rules also provide the following assignment limitations:
A, B, C's. Each senator may serve on no more than two Class A committees and one Class B panel. There are no limits to service on Class C panels.
Class A subcommittees. Within each of their assigned Class A committees, members who are not full committee chairmen may serve on three subcommittee, but they are eligible to chair--or serve as ranking minority member of--only one of those subcommittees. Appropriations subcommittee assignments are exempt from this limitation. Chairmen of full committees may chair only one Class A subcommittee among all their committee assignments.
Class B subcommittees. Senators may also serve on two subcommittees within their Class B committees. (There is no limit to service on Class C committees.) The chairman of a Class B full committee may not chair any Class B subcommittee, but may serve as a nonvoting member of any of that panel's subcommittees.
"Super A" committees. Republican Conference rules limit party members to service on only one of the so-called "Super A" committees--Appropriations, Armed Services, Finance, and Foreign Relations. Democrats observe the same practice for five committees--these four plus the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Same-state rule. Both party conferences provide that when a state happens to be represented by two senators of the same party, the two may not serve together on the same committee. |
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