Byron Dorgan: “I say in response to the remarks of the Senator from Nevada, I certainly agree with his comments. It is not a…”

“I say in response to the remarks of the Senator from Nevada, I certainly agree with his comments. It is not a circumstance where I believe there is any ill will anywhere in this Chamber on those issues. It is hard for a party that has been the majority for there now to be a circumstance where they are not the majority. In fact, they are in a body that is split evenly, 50/50. That is not easy. That is hard to deal with. I understand that. I do not suggest there is ill will anywhere. I am sure they are trying to grapple through these issues and how to respond to that. But I must make another comment. This is not unusual. It has not happened in this body, but it has happened plenty of times around this country. On many occasions, somewhere over 30 occasions, the legislative bodies in the States--either a State Senate or a State House of Representatives--has discovered itself to be evenly divided, tied with respect to the number of Republicans or Democrats. Incidentally, I sent a report to Senators on this and, in every case, they had to reach an agreement. You know, they said: What we have is a membership that is equally divided, so how do we respond to this? Some State legislative bodies said we will have 50/50 splits on the committees. Some said we will have cochairs. Some said we will have rotating chairmanships. They have made all kinds of accommodations for it.”