Senate Republicans, Democrats grappling with how to reorganize

From Dana Bash
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Republican negotiators have completed their outline of how they want the body to run under the new Democratic majority, one of the negotiators said Friday.

Friday morning they presented GOP leader Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, with recommendations on how to structure an organizing resolution governing the make-up and rules of Senate committees, and to get assurances from Democrats that President Bush's nominees will be treated fairly, the negotiator said.

"We've done our work. It's getting prepared, the final wrap up," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, one of the five Republicans Lott choose to negotiate the resolution.

"The leader intends to look at it in final form, but it seems like its OK and will be ready to present to [new Senate Majority Leader Tom] Daschle on Monday. It's good and I'm glad we're finished," Domenici said.

Republicans and Democrats are trying to hammer out an agreement on how to reorganize in the wake of the defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords from the GOP.

Until a reorganization resolution is passed, though Democrats chair Senate committees, the committee membership has reverted to what it was at the end of the last Congress, when each had more Republicans. The 11 Senate freshmen do not have seats on committees.

Before Republicans will allow a resolution to go through, they are demanding an agreement from Daschle, D-South Dakota, that President Bush's judicial and executive nominees will get fair treatment in Democratic-headed committees.

According to a GOP senator who declined to be identified, Republicans have decided to try to get Daschle to agree to a good-will statement assuring fairness and timeliness for Bush's nominees.

It has yet to be decided if Republicans will ask Daschle for a statement on the Senate floor or will seek another venue for his promise not to play politics with nominees.

The GOP senator said the organizing resolution Republicans intend to present to Daschle will accede to his request to give Democrats one-seat majorities on committees and will set budget and staffing levels as well.

A senior Republican aide said the requested statement on nominees will be something pledging "fairness" but vague enough to let each side decide on strategy for troubled nominations on a case-by-case basis.

Republicans earlier this week decided in closed-door caucus meetings to back away from an earlier strategy to change Senate rules to allow them to take Bush's nominees, especially judges, to the Senate floor if they got bottled up or even defeated in committee.

Republicans dropped that demand for several reasons. First, several GOP senators said they were uncomfortable seeking a rules change that could come back to haunt them when Democrats again are in the White House while Republicans run the Senate.

Another reason, according to one senior GOP aide, is the tone of cooperation and accommodation Daschle set as he became majority leader this week.

"He's no George Mitchell or Robert Byrd," the Republican aide said of two former Democratic majority leaders, whom he said his party considered hard to work with and mean-spirited.

Earlier Friday, Daschle fed Republicans more goodwill by suggesting that despite the fact that "over 45 percent of all [of President Clinton's] judicial nominees never got to see the light of day," Democrats will not respond in kind.

"I don't believe in payback. There is ample reason to believe that perhaps payback is something we should entertain. But we are not going to do that. I don't believe in it, we have to break the cycle." said Daschle.

"I think, by and large, people deserve a vote. And you know, there will always be exceptions to every rule, but I think that, generally, I go into it with an expectation that these people ought to be given a fair chance."

One thing Republicans were considering seeking from Daschle was a deal for a limited time frame for the Senate to consider executive and judicial nominees.

But Daschle said he will not go along with that idea.

"Some cases are far more complicated than others and take more vetting, take more hearings, take more careful analysis. So I think that arbitrarily to say, well, we can do them all in a number of days or weeks is not doing justice to the process that we've used," said Daschle.

It is unclear whether the Republican request includes a so-called "snap back" provision that would reimplement power-sharing rules should the Senate become evenly split again. Those power sharing rules, implemented in January with the 50-50 Senate, evenly divided committee assignments and resources.

Republicans were considering incorporating the provision to prevent another major reorganization if a Democrat should leave mid-session. The reorganization process causes serious disruption in everything from staff jobs to budgets to office space.

Daschle indicated earlier this week he would go along with the idea in principle.