The current Minority Leader, Tom Daschle [D-SD], will be Majority Leader for 17 days –

The Majority and Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate

from January 3rd to January 20th. The party of the Vice President [the President of the Senate] determines which party wears the label "majority" when the Senate is evenly split. This is because the Vice President can break tie votes -- in the 50-50 Senate of the 107th Congress there will be a lot of them – in effect making the split 51-50. Al Gore remains Vice President, and therefore President of the Senate, until noon on January 20th. So Democrats will be the majority party until Richard Cheney is sworn in as Vice President and takes over the role of presiding over the Senate. Control will then return to Republicans, and the current Majority Leader, Trent Lott [R-MS], will again resume the title.

The only certain item of business for January 3rd is the swearing in of all the new Senators, the date set by the Constitution for the new Congress to convene. Although it is not expected, if anyone chooses to challenge the credentials of any new Senator, this step could take several days.

Until new organizing resolutions are adopted, the current officers, committee ratios and staff allocations in the Senate would stay the same – an outcome probably unacceptable to Democrats. Whether offered under Democratic leadership during the 17-day period, or later under Republican leadership, any resolutions changing the Senate's structure would be subject to filibuster by the other party. In a 50-50 Senate, the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster would never materialize. Procedural warfare would be the certain result. However, if the two leaders follow past Senate practice, all of the organizational issues will be resolved through negotiated settlements prior to taking them up for floor action.

Democrats could also choose to take up a resolution electing a new President pro tempore. The PPT is 3rd in the line of succession for U.S. President. A new PPT is usually elected only when party control of the Senate switches. Traditionally the most senior Senator of the majority party is chosen for the position. The position is currently held by 98 year old Senator Strom Thurmond [R-SC]. If Democrats decide to elect a new PPT, their most senior Senator is Robert Byrd of West Virginia. He would serve until January 20, when Republicans again take over and elect a new PPT from their own party.

What will ultimately be decided for the committees is still unclear, but a very likely scenario would be a negotiated settlement which includes both Democratic control of Senate committees for the 17 day period, and Republican control thereafter. Senator Daschle has proposed all committees be split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. The Republican Leader, Senator Lott, has rejected that in favor of a one seat Republican majority on each committee. Other Senators have offered compromises such as permitting an even split on some of the committees while retaining a one seat majority for Republicans on others.

Another issue is chairmanships of the committees. A possible compromise might be to elect new Democratic committee chairmen who will serve for 17 days, followed by a return to Republican chairs when Republicans resume the majority on the 20th of January. Mr. Daschle has proposed Republican and Democratic co-chairs, a notion already rejected by Mr. Lott. Other Senators, with an eye toward the 2002 elections, have pointed out that allowing one party to retain the chairmanships provides for a better system of accountability to the voters. They argue that sharing power evenly makes showing the voters clear responsibility for the Senate's actions or inactions more difficult.