[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 75-76]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ORGANIZING THE SENATE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, we have been in a quorum call this morning 
and for some part of yesterday. I know news reports are explaining to 
the American people that we are in the process of organizing in the 
Senate at this point and it has been a bit difficult because, for the 
first time in the history of our country, the Senate is evenly split as 
between Republicans and Democrats.
  There was an occasion in the last century, about 120 years ago or so, 
in which there was an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. But 
there were also two Independents serving in the Senate at the time. 
Having read a bit about that period of time, my understanding is the 
Independents had quite an interesting time bargaining as between the 
two political parties about what their respective roles might be, 
should they choose to assist one political party or another.
  But that is not the case in this circumstance. We are evenly split. 
The American people caused that to happen. They sent 50 Republican 
Senators and 50 Democrat Senators here to the Senate. It is my hope 
that the negotiations currently underway between the Democratic leader, 
now the majority leader, Senator Daschle, and the Republican leader, 
Senator Lott, will bear fruit and that we will be able to organize in a 
manner that is consistent with the wishes of the American people. The 
American people have, by their desire, said that they want a split 
Senate, in fact a dead-even tie.
  That would say to us that after January 20, the Vice President-elect, 
Richard Cheney, will have the opportunity to give the Republicans an 
additional vote in this Chamber for the purpose of organizing. That is 
certainly true. But it is not the case that the Vice President, in his 
presiding role according to the Constitution, is going to play a role 
in any committee in this Congress. There is no such role for the Vice 
President. Therefore, in each and every committee we have a 
representation from 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, a selection, then, 
of which is made to the committee membership. We feel very strongly 
that those committees ought to have a membership of 50/50.
  Yesterday, we had the first hearing in the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation on which I serve. Senator McCain, who is 
the chairman of that committee--actually yesterday it was Senator 
Hollings who was technically the Chair, and Senator McCain works very 
closely with Senator Hollings--Senator McCain, in his opening 
statement, said: The way this committee works, we don't report things 
out of this committee that represent a partisan division. We work our 
issues out between the Republicans and Democrats. What we bring to the 
floor of the Senate, he said, from the Commerce Committee, represents a 
consensus among the members of the Commerce Committee.
  He is right about that. He is a person who has chaired that committee 
all of the years that I have served on it in a circumstance where he 
really searches for ways to find common ground between the two 
political parties. Much to his credit, I must say, Senator McCain has 
said he believes a 50/50 split on the committee is appropriate, given 
the fact that the Senate is split 50/50. I only mention that because 
just yesterday he made the point that a 50/50 split will not make much 
difference in committees where you work in a bipartisan way, and we do 
that--and he does that.
  But it is my hope that now, in the coming hours, that Senator Lott 
and Senator Daschle will be able to reach an agreement that is fair and 
one that allows us to do our work and allows us to organize our 
committees. I feel very strongly the product of that work should at the 
very least provide a 50/50 membership on the committees.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. DORGAN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, he is right on the mark. Senator McCain 
is quoted in the paper today, almost verbatim what the Senator from 
North Dakota said. He said, as quoted in the paper: I don't report 
things out of my committee on a partisan basis. If I did, they won't go 
anyplace anyway. And, in reality, the Senate is divided 50/50.

[[Page 76]]

  He went on further to say, as he understood the framework of the 
agreement, the Democrats would allow him to be chairman. He thought 
that was a pretty good deal.
  I say to my friend from North Dakota, in the form of a question, and 
ask if he would agree: The fact is, the Senate is divided 50/50. As I 
said before, it doesn't matter what kind of math you use; 50 Democrats 
and 50 Republicans comes out equally. It would seem to me that the 
committee structure should be equal.
  Again, reading in the Washington Times, which seemed to be a press 
release from the dissidents--I should not say ``the dissidents''--it 
seemed to be a press release from those people opposing equality in the 
Senate. It appeared to be a press release they issued. They are saying: 
I don't understand. We are going to be in the majority. We deserve to 
have one more on the committee.
  I say to my friend from North Dakota, and I ask if he would agree 
with me: The Republicans are not in the majority in the Senate of the 
United States. On the organizational matters, there will never be any 
tie the Vice President can vote upon, as Alan Simpson said, formerly 
the assistant Republican leader and Republican whip. As he said: The 
Republicans will be killed by the public publicity-wise if they try to 
oppose equality in the Senate.
  He went on further to say that he thought the committee chairmanships 
should rotate on a yearly basis.
  So again in the form of a question: I would hope, as I am sure my 
friend from North Dakota hopes, that the work of our leader, Senator 
Daschle, and their leader, Senator Lott, comes to fruition. These men 
have worked extremely hard. They deserve the support of their two 
caucuses. What they are trying to do, as I understand it, is come up 
with something that is fair. That is all the majority of this Senate 
wants. The majority of the Senate wants a 50/50 division. If we had a 
vote on that today, that is how it would take place. So we should get 
that here as quickly as possible and get on with the business of the 
Senate. Then we would not be in quorum calls here.
  Does the Senator from North Dakota agree?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the senior Senator from North 
Dakota has expired.
  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent, in that I took so much time of my 
friend from North Dakota, that his time be extended for another 10 
minutes.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I say in response to the remarks of the 
Senator from Nevada, I certainly agree with his comments. It is not a 
circumstance where I believe there is any ill will anywhere in this 
Chamber on those issues. It is hard for a party that has been the 
majority for there now to be a circumstance where they are not the 
majority. In fact, they are in a body that is split evenly, 50/50. That 
is not easy. That is hard to deal with. I understand that. I do not 
suggest there is ill will anywhere. I am sure they are trying to 
grapple through these issues and how to respond to that.
  But I must make another comment. This is not unusual. It has not 
happened in this body, but it has happened plenty of times around this 
country. On many occasions, somewhere over 30 occasions, the 
legislative bodies in the States--either a State Senate or a State 
House of Representatives--has discovered itself to be evenly divided, 
tied with respect to the number of Republicans or Democrats. 
Incidentally, I sent a report to Senators on this and, in every case, 
they had to reach an agreement. You know, they said: What we have is a 
membership that is equally divided, so how do we respond to this? Some 
State legislative bodies said we will have 50/50 splits on the 
committees. Some said we will have cochairs. Some said we will have 
rotating chairmanships. They have made all kinds of accommodations for 
it. In fact, in one State they actually just flipped a coin and decided 
who was in the majority by a coin toss. There are so many different 
mechanisms for States to make these decisions. We have not had to make 
those decisions until now.
  What I hope will happen is that Senator Daschle and Senator Lott, in 
the coming couple of hours, because time is of the essence here, will 
be able to reach an agreement that is fair to every Member of this 
Chamber and fair to both political parties.
  We don't want that which we don't deserve. But we do believe that if, 
by virtue of the decisions made by the American people, we have 50 
percent of the membership of a body of 100, we have the opportunity to 
have that same percent of the membership on the committees, because 
that, after all, is where the work originates that eventually comes to 
the floor of the Senate.
  I graduated in a high school class of nine--top five, incidentally. I 
understood from either lower math or higher math, that when you have 
100 seats and 50 are Republicans and 50 are Democrats, that is called a 
tie. That is the basis of all of this negotiation.
  Let us hope in the next few hours our two leaders can reach final 
agreement. Then we will turn, next week, to a circumstance where we 
have the capability of organizing and making all of the committee 
assignments and move on to deal with the nominations sent to us by 
President-elect Bush.
  If such an agreement is not reached, of course, if there are some 
discordant voices in the Senate who say, ``It doesn't matter it is 50/
50, we insist on having a majority in every circumstance in every 
way,'' if that is the case, of course those many of us who feel very 
strongly about the need to have the opportunity to have a 50/50 split 
on the committees would not want to allow that to happen. There will 
then ensue, of course, a battle about organizing.
  Let's avoid that. Let's not do that. Let us, today, in the next 
couple of hours, resolve this in the right way and in a fair way. If we 
do that, we will have best served the American people's interest.
  Mr. REID. If the Senator can be interrupted, and I will be very 
quick, he raises an important issue. People in the State of Nevada in 
1985 had a tie in the Nevada State Assembly, equal numbers of Democrats 
and Republicans. It was one of the most productive sessions in the 
history of the Nevada Legislature.
  Evan Bayh, when he was Governor of the State of Indiana, had a tie in 
the State Legislature. That was one of the most productive in the 
history of the State Legislature.
  I say to my friend, he is absolutely right on target. I also say, in 
addition to Senator McCain, there are other people who will become 
chairmen after January 20, Republicans, who stated 50/50 is a fair way 
to do things.
  I hope we can work this out. I know people have strong feelings, but 
I hope the two leaders will be able to bring something to us so we can 
get down to the work at hand. I appreciate the Senator yielding.
  Mr. DORGAN. The point is, we wish Senator Daschle and Senator Lott 
well and hope they succeed in reaching an agreement, and we pledge our 
cooperation to help them do that.

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