Leadership in the US Senate

Leadership in the US Senate: Herding Cats in the Modern Era edited by Colton C Campbell was published in 2019. It reviews changes in Senate culture and procedure through the lens of every majority leader over the last five decades. For every leader, the authors basically review leader effectiveness in managing a policy agenda and meeting electoral goals of the party (Loc4061). Every leader facilitated the long term shift of the Senate into a more partisan environment through rules changes, cultural shifts, and structural expansions of staff. What was once a “nuclear option” became progressively more common over time and used by both major parties.

The first person to be called a “majority leader” was John Kern (D-IN) in 1913, 124 years after the first congress. There is an expectation by the public that the Senate Majority Leader has tremendous power. For Democrats, the leadership team consists of the party leader, the assistant leader AKA whip, secretary of the caucus, and the chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (Loc6422). For Republicans, this is roughly the same, but with deputies for each position as well as policy committee positions. 

The most important piece of wisdom there is about the US Senate is the Senate critically relies on parliamentarian rules, social norms, and bipartisanship in order to work. In formal rules, the majority leader has a variety of small privileges including a recognition prerogative, which allows them to control the amendments process (Loc1026). Thus, the most significant trend over time has been the shift from a collaborative Senate to a more and more 'individualistic' over time, particularly since the 1950s under Mike Mansfield (D-Montana) (Loc662). 

Over time, the role of a majority leader has drastically expanded. Where committee members and leaders used to be the most significant negotiators on a piece of legislation, today the majority leader tends to lead that effort. This is, in part, because the majority leader can also bypass committee work through Rule XIV (Loc1044). Today majority leaders lead those negotiations, run messaging, fundraise for the party, and more. Since the 1950s, the Senate Majority Leader role has shifted towards partisan leadership and political maneuvers aimed at picking up more seats. 
Because this institution relies on procedure and collegiality to function, the ongoing political polarization has led to a less productive Senate. In turn, majority leaders lean more heavily into the electioneering role of the position: “‘Narrow majorities inherently encourage partisan conflict. When control is always within reach…’ ‘the majority party’s failure is the minority party’s success,’” (Loc806). The minority party creates an inventory of losses ahead of the election (Loc853), a strategy highlighted in both this book as well as McConnell’s biography. Furthermore, leaders would prefer to build support from within the party before looking to members of the other party (Loc7193). So, the pattern is as such: “First, the majority leader believes..that the minority party is deliberately obstructing the majority’s agenda. This perspective provokes parliamentary maneuvers by the majority leader to restrict the minority’s amendment and debate opportunities…” which then leads to debate, filibusters, and counter procedures which ultimately inhibits bipartisan collaboration (Loc886). Senators continually take a more individualistic approach to legislating, looking out for their own seats. 

In today’s Senate, prevention of filibuster is highly advantageous. Amendments which come from the House are not subject to filibuster (Loc1098). Additionally, the reconciliation process, something far more Americans are aware of now than ever before, was created by the Budget Act of 1974. Reconciliation allows for expedited consideration of legislation dealing with appropriations, taxes, and the national debt. While this is complex and has its own rules, reconciliation bills are filibuster proof, a maximum of 20 hours of debate. To initiate this, Congress has to adopt a concurrent budget resolution (Loc980). There are actually 13 bills to be passed as part of the budget. However, the last time this process was followed was in 1996 (Loc5241). 

The Tea Party/Freedom Caucus of today began with Newt Gingrich in the mid-90s (Loc801). This rightward shift for the base of the Republican Party not only created issues for Mitch McConnell, which he mentions in the biography Price of Power, but it particularly began to and continues to disrupt the Senate’s legislative work today. Cloture votes, once a procedure to end debate, is now used as a campaign issue against the minority party to target them as obstructionist or, if the opposite occurs, the minority party uses these motions to force a vote on something the majority leader may not want to vote on (Loc922). 

When leaders are in power with a same party president, discord within the party is likely to be quelled by restrictive floor procedures which advance the president’s agenda and demonstrate the capacity of the majority to govern. (Loc1574). Fundamental assumptions within this trends are 1) it benefits the party to govern effectively and 2) those who assist the president may receive campaign assistance from the president. Both of these assumptions have changed over time. Campaigns continue to become more and more negative and offensive, as opposed to focusing on productivity. Additionally, with more prevalent intraparty disagreements, presidents may not support their own party members, reducing incentive to produce legislation for the president. 

One Miscellaneous Observation: 
- In discussing partisan media, the authors share that programs which are polarized in nature are small compared to the major networks (Loc761). Obviously that’s a stark difference from today. 

While learning about each individual majority leader provides an interesting lens, the clear pattern between all leaders was they had one or several of the following traits: a mastery of Senate rules and procedure, charismatic personality, and were relentlessly hardworking.