Question about congressional proceedings
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 06:16:28 AM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  General Discussion
  Constitution and Law (Moderator: World politics is up Schmitt creek)
  Question about congressional proceedings
« previous next »
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: Question about congressional proceedings  (Read 562 times)
Vosem
Atlas Icon
*****
Posts: 15,618
United States


Political Matrix
E: 8.13, S: -6.09

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« on: September 01, 2015, 02:17:24 PM »

Let's say that Democrats gain a net of 5 Senate seats in 2016, and hold the Presidency (a fairly plausible scenario), but Heidi Heitkamp is elected Governor of North Dakota/Claire McCaskill is appointed Attorney General/for whatever reason some incumbent Democrat vacates their seat. Thus, the Senate stands at 50-49 R or 50-48 R, with some seats vacant. My basic question is -- is a majority of the entire Senate (51 seats or 50+VP) necessary to appoint the Senate Majority Leader, or just a majority of occupied Senate seats? If it is the first one, what happens when no one controls a majority of all Senate seats because of vacancies?
Logged
SteveRogers
duncan298
YaBB God
*****
Posts: 4,155


Political Matrix
E: -3.87, S: -5.04

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2015, 06:31:49 PM »

I don't know specifically what the rule is on electing a majority leader, but a quorum is a majority of the "Senators duly chosen and sworn," so you just need a majority of currently occupied Senate seats. I would assume the requirement for electing a majority leader is the same.
Logged
Barnes
Roy Barnes 2010
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,556


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2015, 08:22:06 PM »

A scenario a bit like this occurred in 107th Congress (2001-03), which, as we know, had several majority changes over its term.  The one that  I would single out is following the elections in November 2002, several causal vacancies were filled immediately giving Republicans a new technical majority.

However, the Senate was out of session when the new Senators took office and there was never an actual reorganization or change of leadership, or much of a wish to do so.

This is obviously a slightly different scenario, but my point is that I think it's very likely that both parties would stay as they are and simply wait for the vacancies to be filled seeing that such a situation would last for a relatively short period of time.
Logged
True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
Ernest
Moderators
Atlas Legend
*****
Posts: 42,157
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2015, 09:06:27 PM »

It's an ordinary vote, so a majority of those voting or a tie with the veep deciding the issue is sufficient. That said, unless it looks like there would be a lengthy vacancy, I'd like to think the Senate retains enuf collegiality that it would resolve the situation so as to reflect who would likely get the post when all seats are filled.
Logged
Barnes
Roy Barnes 2010
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,556


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2015, 10:42:37 PM »

It's an ordinary vote, so a majority of those voting or a tie with the veep deciding the issue is sufficient. That said, unless it looks like there would be a lengthy vacancy, I'd like to think the Senate retains enuf collegiality that it would resolve the situation so as to reflect who would likely get the post when all seats are filled.

Exactly.  Most likely with such a small majority either way, there wouldn't be any real shift in the actual agenda before the body, so there would be little reasons to go back and forth over a set of possibly only days.
Logged
Barnes
Roy Barnes 2010
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,556


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2015, 10:50:23 PM »

As an aside, the Senate doesn't hold an actual vote for the Majority Leader or any party leadership positions (same as the House), including the time that the majority changed mid-session in 2001.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
« previous next »
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.032 seconds with 11 queries.