Republicans May Dictate Lame Duck Session
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Nov. 06, 2002–Tuesday’s election saw a shift of power in the Senate, which in the upcoming lame duck session may propel New Hampshire’s senators to the chairmanships of two key committees and give Republicans control of the legislative agenda.
“I am heartened by the knowledge that the GOP will once again be in the majority in both chambers” because Bush’s agenda has a better chance of success then, Sen. Bob Smith, who leaves the Senate after the lame duck session, said in a statement.
Sen. Judd Gregg, on the other hand, focused on what he will do as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – if not in the lame duck session, then in the 108th Congress.
Gregg said in a statement that he would focus on passing a Medicare prescription drug benefit bill that includes access to generic drugs. Another big priority is ensuring that the United States is prepared in the event of a bioterrorism attack by allowing citizens access to the smallpox vaccine and medicine to treat other biological attacks, he said.
Smith also might briefly take control of the Environment and Public Works Committee, of which he is currently the ranking minority member, but Smith’s office did not want to comment on what his priorities would be if that were to occur.
On the eve of the 2002 elections, Democrats held a one-seat majority in the Senate, having 50 votes to the Republicans’ 49, with one seat vacant because of the Oct. 25 death of Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.
The race for Wellstone’s seat, as well as for a Missouri Senate seat to be filled immediately because the incumbent had been appointed to the seat, were decided in favor of the GOP. While neither result had been certified as of Wednesday, those victories were expected to give Republicans at least the same number of votes as Democrats in the lame duck session, with Vice President Cheney breaking any ties.
Normally, general elections do not affect the political makeup of a lame duck session, as the winners of the contests are not sworn in until January.
The Missouri race, however, determined who would serve the remainder of Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan’s term, to which she was appointed after her late husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, posthumously won his election bid two years ago.
With Republican challenger Jim Talent defeating Carnahan, control of the seat will switch parties as soon as the result are certified, reportedly not until several days after the lame duck session begins.
The Minnesota race also saw a winner who could take office early to fill the Wellstone seat.
Republican Norm Coleman, who defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale in that race, will take his seat as soon as his victory is officially certified. In the meantime, Gov. Jesse Ventura’s temporary appointee, Dean Barkley, an independent who has not said which party he will vote with, would be seated. Without his–or Coleman’s–vote, the Senate would probably be split,with neither party having a majority of the votes, making Cheney’s vote the tiebreaker. But if Talent is qualified in time, the GOP would have a clear majority of the Senate.
“There are some conflicting scenarios here,” said John Fortier, a political analyst for the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. “But by all rights, Republicans are going to take the chairmanships and make the rules.”
Republicans have two equally compelling options in the lame duck session, Fortier said. They could wait until Talent takes his seat and then use the momentum generated in the elections to try to pass the homeland security bill, which has been stalled for months.
They could also decide to wait until the dust settles and the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, he said, when they are assured of having at least a bare majority of seats.
The potential makeup of the new Senate is 51-46 in favor of Republicans, with one independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, voting with the Democrats. One race was undecided Wednesday and another was subject to an automatic recount.
Republicans’ decision on how to approach the lame duck session will probably be based on their ability to reorganize the Senate, said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, another Washington think tank.
“My sense is that they’re not going to go through all that,” she said.
But GOP lawmakers are unlikely to know yet what they are going to do, Fortier said, having been caught off guard by such favorable election results. “They probably didn’t consider having as good of a night as they did,” he said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
