The week
What will happen and could happen if Democrats win the contests in Georgia for a 50-50 Senate
If Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff maintain their leadership and win both seats in the Georgia Senate when votes are counted from Tuesday’s election, the Senate will be divided by 50-50. As soon as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris takes office on January 20, Democrats will have 51 votes and control of the chamber – Senator Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) will be the majority leader and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) .) will be the minority leader, among other changes.> If everything is up, here is a look at a change in the leadership of the Senate committee. >> The following change of classification for president >> Banks, Housing, Urban Affairs: Sherrod Brown >> Budget: Bernie Sanders >> Finance: Ron Wyden >> HELP: Patty Murray >> Appropriations: Patrick Leahy >> – Yashar Ali ( @yashar) January 6, 2021 There are only three other 50-50 divisions in the Senate in the history of the United States, mainly for short periods, reports The Washington Post, and it is not clear how this will work. The last time the Senate was divided equally, from January to June 2001, Democratic leader Tom Daschle (SD) and Republican leader Trent Lott (Mississippi) reached a power-sharing agreement in which the committees were divided equally. Lott was the majority leader since Vice President Dick Cheney (R) took office until Democrats convinced Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords to switch parties, giving Democrats a 51-49 majority. During those six months, “I could have been a workhorse, ‘We have the majority, go to hell’,” Lott told the Post on Tuesday. “And we would have a daily war.” The Senate could replicate that 2001 agreement, as McConnell suggested in 2016, but Lott is skeptical, given the growing polarization in the Senate. “Tom Daschle and I used to talk more in one day than Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer in a month on Sundays,” he said. Either way, Democrats can use their 51 votes to set the Senate agenda, the go-ahead for President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet and other nominees confirm federal judges and Supreme Court nominees and approve certain budget-related items in the reconciliation process. Most other legislation needs 60 votes to overcome an obstruction – which Democrats could also reject, but won’t, thanks to the objections of Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and other moderates. As Democrats also control the House, Dave Weigel of the Post notes, they can use the Congressional Review Act to eliminate any Trump administration regulations enacted in recent months, as Republicans did liberally with Obama administration regulations in early 2017. If one of Georgia’s Democrats loses, the Senate will remain in control of the Republican Party. theweek.com 7 biting caricatures about Trump’s call in Georgia Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? McConnell looks at Trump’s gun barrel