Senate Changes Committee Appointment System

I came across two interesting articles discussing the recent changes that Senate Republicans have made in determining committee appointments. The main article is from a Maine newspaper called the Press Herald and is called Moderates Feeling Squeezed while the other is from CNN and is entitled A Change in Pace – and Rules – in Congress. The new change in the rules allows the caucus leader to make committee appointments, rather than letting members choose their assignments based on seniority in the chamber. Essentially, it gives him the power to make appointments without regard to seniority. This was very intriguing news and of surprise to me because we had just discussed this issue in class. Both articles discuss the change made in mid-November and even moderate Republican senators are calling this change a “mistake” because it would “reward supporters and punish recalcitrant members”. It’s interesting that moderate Republicans are against this change because now they will have to take into consideration how they vote on issues brought to the floor if they ever want to be considered for chairmanship of a committee. It’s hard for them because as a moderate Republican they may not agree with their party on every issue, but now “it raises concerns about people constantly jockeying for position or worrying that their votes are going to be used against them". The change was approved narrowly (27-26 vote) and now Majority Leader Frist will have the power to reward his supporters by giving them chairmanship over committees and deny this opportunity to other members who he considers unmanageable or who don’t “toe the party line”. Frist will be able to use this power to “discipline moderates and keep conservatives in control”. The actual change means that he will be able to name his own choices to the first two vacancies on any committee. The rest would be filled as they are now, based on the seniority of lawmakers who want a given seat. It gives an incredible amount of power to the majority leader to shape and form the committees to his liking. This topic is relevant to our class because it goes against one of the assumptions in the model presented by the Weingast and Marshall paper. Their second assumption states that parties place no constraints on the behavior of individual representatives. But with this new change to the rules a Republican will now have to rethink if he/she is going to vote against his party on an issue. The consequences are much more serious than there were before if he/she votes differently from their party. The senator is now torn between serving the wishes of their district or ensuring a future position on a committee. This leads into the principle-agent problem where the legislator may note be serving in the best interest of his constituents. Another issue discussed in the Weingast and Marshall Paper that is affected by this new change in the Senate is the legislative committee system. The second condition states that there exists a property rights system over committee seats called the “seniority system”. Leadership positions within the committee (chairmanship) are allocated by seniority and the right to committee positions cannot be sold or traded with others. However, with this new rule, this condition does not hold as strongly because you now have to be on favorable terms with the majority leader to be able to gain the chairmanship. It no longer holds that if you are new on the committee you have to start from the bottom because you may earn chairmanship if you have the support of the caucus leader. Also, the value in staying on a committee has diminished. You are not rewarded for the time and effort you’ve put into the committee because someone else with less experience or none at all can come in and chair it. A good issue brought up in the article is a contest for the leader's position and Senator Collins says that "in a case like that, you can be sure that the candidates are going to be trading committee assignment promises for votes." This should be an interesting topic to watch out for when the next majority leader is elected. Weingast and Marshall’s paper shows that without the assumption that parties do no place constraints on individual representation and the conditions of seniority of determining chairmanship then the committee legislative model does not hold. It will be interesting to see how the committee appointments over the next few years affect the workings of the Senate.