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US Democratic, Republican Parties to Share Power in Senate
US Democratic and Republican parties on January 5 agreed to share power in the Senate divided 50-50 between the two parties.
According to the power-sharing pact agreed by a voice vote, all Senate committees that craft bills and consider President-elect George W. Bush's choices to fill federal posts will have equal numbers of members from both parties.
To avoid deadlocks, the plan allows either the majority leader or the minority leader to advance to the floor a bill or a nomination that is being held up by an evenly split committee vote.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said the power-sharing pact, which was reached after weeks of negotiations between the two parties, was "fair and reasonable."
Republican leader Trent Lott also described the agreement as "a reasonable one, with a serious dose of reality."
Until January 20 when the new president is sworn in, Democrats will be the Senate majority because Gore is still vice president and can preside over the Senate. Vice President-Elect Dick Cheney will take Gore's position on January 20 and hold the tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate.
The agreement had been resisted for days by many conservative Senators who were reluctant to share power with Democrats at a time when Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
It will be the first time that Republicans will have had the control of both Congress and the White House since January 1955, when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
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