With the midterm election over we Democrats have 9 new members for the Senate:
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA)
Sen. James Webb (D-VA)
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT)
This means we have taken over the US Senate and come January will form the majority.
Thus new Senate committee assignments need to be handed out.
The fact we are taking over the Senate means that each committee will get 2 extra Democratic members and two GOPers will drop out.
Who of our new senators would you assign to which committee?
In general each Senator serves on two to three committees.
The following committees are currently employed, in bracketts I have added the presumed Dem chairman:
* Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry (Tom Harkin, D-IA)
* Appropriations (Robert Byrd, D-WV)
* Armed Services (Carl Levin, D-MI)
* Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (Chris Dodd, D-CT)
* Budget (Kent Conrad, D-ND)
* Commerce, Science and Transportation (?)
* Energy and Natural Resources (Jeff Bingaman, D-NM)
* Environment and Public Works (Barbara Boxer, D-CA)
* Finance (Max Baucus, D-MT)
* Foreign Relations (Joseph Biden, D-DE)
* Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (Ted Kennedy, D-MA)
* Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Joe Lieberman, D-CT)
* Indian Affairs (Byron Dorgan, D-ND)
* Judiciary (Patrick Leahy, D-VT)
* Rules and Administration (?)
* Small Business and Entrepreneurship (John Kerry, D-MA)
* Veterans' Affairs (Daniel Akaka, D-HI)
* Select Committee on Ethics (Tim Johnson, D-SD)
* Select Committee on Intelligence (Jay Rockefeller, D-WV)
* Special Committee on Aging (Herb Kohl, D-WI)