Indie Caucusing with Neither Party

[publicunofficial]

They'd be given no committee assignments and would be a fairly ineffective Senator

[publicunofficial]

In the past when independent Progs/Populists/whatever were elected, did they always caucus with people?

I want to say yes. There were a couple of Populists who were given Committee chairmanships under Democratic majorities. Progressives, I assume, caucused with the Republicans.

[publicunofficial]

They'd be given no committee assignments and would be a fairly ineffective Senator

Would they really be given no committee assignments? Not even one?

Committees aren't even mentioned in the Constitution, so it's not like Senators have the inherent right to be on them. The parties choose who goes on committees, and they have no incentive to give those precious committee seats to an Indie unless they join the caucus.