CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Dec. 31, 2008 – 1:14 p.m.
Biden Could Cast More Votes Before Leaving Senate
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Something rare may transpire in the Senate in the coming week or so, if Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware casts a vote in the 111th Congress.
Biden was elected vice president on Nov. 4, but he also won election that day to his seventh full term in the Senate — and he will take his seat in the chamber again next week when the 111th Congress convenes Jan. 6.
Biden has not yet said when he will resign from the Senate, although he will do so before Jan. 20, when Barack Obama will take the oath as president and Biden will be sworn in as vice president.
In an ordinary year, a new Congress would take a break between its opening day or two and late January. But with the economy in a deep recession, the financial system in crisis and two wars in progress, there will be no such breathing space this time around.
Obama wants Congress to have a massive economic recovery package ready for his signature as soon as possible after he takes the oath Jan. 20. That means both chambers may be taking roll call votes before Inauguration Day.
“If a critical vote comes up and Sen. Biden is needed, he will vote,” Biden spokeswoman Annie Tomasini said Tuesday.
If Biden does cast another Senate vote before assuming the vice presidency, it would be the first time in 60 years that a vice-president-elect voted in a new Congress prior to being sworn in as vice president. Kentucky Sen. Alben W. Barkley cast several Senate votes in January 1949 — including to confirm Dean Acheson as secretary of State — before resigning his seat to become Harry S Truman’s vice president.
Other vice presidents plucked from the Senate since then have not voted in the new Congress, according to Associate Senate historian Donald A. Ritchie.
When Biden takes the Senate oath on Jan. 6, the ceremony itself will be unusual because the outgoing vice president — Republican Dick Cheney — will administer the oath to Biden, his successor. Something like that last happened in 1961, when outgoing Vice President Richard M. Nixon swore in Lyndon B. Johnson to his third Senate term days before Johnson became John F. Kennedy’s vice president.
Johnson resigned from the Senate immediately after being sworn in and was replaced by fellow Democrat William A. Blakely, who then lost in a special election later that year to Republican John Tower — whom Johnson had bested in the November 1960 general election.
Two other sitting Democratic senators will be leaving office on or shortly after Jan. 20 to take Cabinet posts in the new Obama administration — Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Interior Secretary-designate Ken Salazar of Colorado.
Like Biden, they will remain in the Senate for the opening days of the 111th Congress and may be called upon to help Democrats win passage of the economic recovery package. Both Salazar and Clinton plan to stay in the Senate until the Senate confirms them for their new jobs, which cannot happen until Obama becomes president and formally submits their nominations for confirmation.
Aides to both senators said their bosses may not have cast their final Senate votes.
Salazar “will continue to serve in the Senate until he is confirmed,” said spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley, adding that Salazar would cast votes.
Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines was somewhat less definitive. “Since there aren’t any votes scheduled it’s hard for me to answer,” Reines said. “But I would note that she voted on the auto bailout package . . . when it failed,” he added, referring to the $14 billion loan package (
The last vice president to be elected directly from the Senate was Al Gore of Tennessee in 1992. But unlike Biden, Gore was two years into his term when he was elected.
Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has said she will nominate Ted Kaufman, a former Biden aide, to serve in Biden’s seat until a special election is held in 2010. Kaufman says he won’t run in that election. But Biden’s son, Beau Biden, the state’s attorney general who is now serving with his Army National Guard unit in Iraq, may make a run for his father’s seat.
Clinton and Salazar also come from states with Democratic governors, who will appoint their replacements. Neither New York Gov. David Paterson nor Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. has announced a decision yet.
Comments
President Truman's middle name--NOT his middle initial--was "S." So this story should have him as "Harry S Truman," not "Harry S. Truman."
Wrong. From the Truman Library website (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/speriod.htm): In recent years the question of whether to use a period after the "S" in Harry S. Truman's name has become a subject of controversy, especially among editors. The evidence provided by Mr. Truman's own practice argues strongly for the use of the period. While, as many people do, Mr. Truman often ran the letters in his signature together in a single stroke, the archives of the Harry S. Truman Library have numerous examples of the signature written at various times throughout Mr. Truman's lifetime where his use of a period after the "S" is very obvious. It's "Harry S. Truman".
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I don't have a problem with Biden's doing this, but I wonder why it's necessary, particularly with regard to "If a critical vote comes up and Sen. Biden is needed, he will vote." Governor Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat like Biden, has indicated her intention to appoint Biden's aide Ted Kaufman, also a Democrat like Biden, not to mention one of Biden's longtime associates, to the seat when it becomes vacant. It seems reasonable to assume that Sen. Kaufman will vote the Democratic Party line.
Actually TRUMANS middle name is often misunderstood. Its not that it "DIDNT" stand for something (and he did use the S.(period)) its that it stood for TWO THINGS. SHipp and Simpson. The family names of his grandparents. Its often said that the S didnt stand for anything so its just S but thats a cunnard.
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