evince
Truthmatters
https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-warnocks-win-changes-the-climate-game-for-senate-dems/
The biggest impacts could be felt in Senate committees, three experts said.
The chamber’s 2021 power-sharing agreement evenly split committee membership between Democrats and Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris can break tie votes on the Senate floor, but she cannot vote in committee. So whenever senators deadlocked on a vote, Democrats had to spend floor time discharging nominees or bills from committees.
Committee work has been affected too. Committee staff and budgets have been split evenly between parties, stretching the majority’s staffers relatively thin. And Democrats have been constrained from issuing subpoenas, which typically require a committee or subcommittee majority vote.
The extra vote also gives Democrats a cushion for the worst-case scenario: a senator getting sick, dying, resigning or otherwise leaving the chamber. Covid-19-related absences were a recurring issue for Democrats over the past two years. At least two Democrats — Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico — were hospitalized this year.
The biggest impacts could be felt in Senate committees, three experts said.
The chamber’s 2021 power-sharing agreement evenly split committee membership between Democrats and Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris can break tie votes on the Senate floor, but she cannot vote in committee. So whenever senators deadlocked on a vote, Democrats had to spend floor time discharging nominees or bills from committees.
Committee work has been affected too. Committee staff and budgets have been split evenly between parties, stretching the majority’s staffers relatively thin. And Democrats have been constrained from issuing subpoenas, which typically require a committee or subcommittee majority vote.
The extra vote also gives Democrats a cushion for the worst-case scenario: a senator getting sick, dying, resigning or otherwise leaving the chamber. Covid-19-related absences were a recurring issue for Democrats over the past two years. At least two Democrats — Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico — were hospitalized this year.
