Question

You just won a seat in the US Senate after serving in the legislature. Its committee assignment time! How might this process be different if you were a Republican or a Democrat?

Answer 1

Senate Democrats use a Steering and Outreach committee to nominate Democrats for assignment to all standing committees.

The processes these two panels use are distinct from each other.

Senator is the important person for both the committees because it is one who approves the process.

Republicans rely on a seniority formula to make nominations while Democrats make nominations on a seat-by-seat basis, considering a variety of factors.

Committee sizes and ratios are determined before Senators are assigned to committees.

But nominations of each panel require the approval of the full party conference.

Senator is considered as the member of that conference and receives his or her committee assignments from that conference through its regular processes.

The committee assignment process used by Senate Republicans involves 3 steps-

1. The Committee on Committees and Republican leader nominate Republican Senators for committee assignments.

2. These recommendations are submitted for approval to the Republican Conference, the organization of the Republican Senators.

3. The recommendations are incorporated into one or more Senate resolutions and approved by the full Senate.

The steps in the nomination and assignment process for Senate Democrats are-

1. Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee to make nominations for committee assignments.

2. It consists of approval of the nominations by the Democratic Conference, which comprises all Democrats in the Senate.

3. This is for assignment roasters to be incorporated into one or many Senate resolutions and considered and approved by the full Senate.

Senate Democrats do not have written rules governing this assignment process, as do Senate Republicans.

Reference-

Official website of Senate Government