Talk:United States Senate

Semi-protected edit request on 8 July 2020

Under Current Composition, in addition to listing the number of senators of each party, this page should replicate the table found at the end of the House of Representatives article whereby the number of state delegation majorities is also listed. Obviously, with the Senate, there is considerably higher probability of split delegations so there should be three categories. Ideally, this information would also be listed in the caption box at the top right hand side of the page. This may only be of interest in rare instances, but given that it would determine the likely outcome of a vote in the Senate for the Vice President, it should be clearly and plainly available as a foundational aspect of how the Senate would function in one of its most momentous and important constitutionally manadated functions.

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. This information is already available at List of current United States senators, which is linked from the same place as the table would be placed. Since the number of legations that are majority Democratic or Republican is identical to the number of delegations without a split delegation, this request only repackages information already available. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 19:36, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

The information is not available where you describe. There is map with states colored blue, red, or purple. Why should someone first of all have to dig to find that other page, then count states on a map to come up with the information? Your misreading of this second article and its contents, in addition to your apparent misreading of the justification for the intitial request (namely that people generally will be ignorant of the import of this information unless presented with it, how then would they know to search for it in another place?) suggests a major reading comprehension problem on your part. Is the example demonstrated by the article on the house not a good enough reason to match what is present there in this article? Good grief. I'm not interested in your community of internet weanies. I saw something I thought was glaringly amiss, and took time from my day to (I thought) learn your procedures to bring it to the attention of those supposedly committed to improving this site. The answer given by you? A misstatement that the information is already present somewhere else and that the universe would implode if it was sensibly also included here, coupled with a demand to spend more of my time dealing with your ilk? No thanks. Leave the article in the excecrable state that is is in, so that generalized American ignorance of their own laws and institutions can continue to shock an appall all those capable of reasoned thought. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.137.174.216 (talk) 23:13, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Request withdrawn. I based my request on what I had read in various recent articles around this process (histrionics about Trump losing the election and remaining President). Wrong with regard to the Senate choosing the VP. I went back and read the actual 12th amendment, and while the House divides itself into state delegations with regard to voting for President, the Senate does not. As I read the 12th, it says the Senate votes. It does not contain the same language about partitioning into state delegations. Thus, each Senator would get a vote, and whomever controls the Senate will choose their preferred candidate. No language with regard to tie breaking here. Presumably, even though it would be the recently elected Senators who would do the voting, the current VP would still vote to break a tie, namely Pence. Thus the party currently outside the Whitehouse would need to have a caucus containing 51 votes if they hoped to choose. There is a small section at the end of the article that mentions the Senate's role in choosing the VP, but no language describing in detail how. If someone with access wishes to improve the article, they could mention that each Senator gets a vote, and that this differs from the House procedure. Whomever might make this effort should check as well that I am correct in my information that it is the newly elected members who vote, and not the previous Senate and include this information as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.137.174.216 (talk) 19:14, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

World's greatest deliberative body

I was just going to add a reference that says a little more about the term "the world's greatest deliberative body." Kathy Kiely in the Washington Post notes that it is attributed to James Buchanan, is often parroted by senators, was cited recently by Chief Justice Roberts, made it onto the official US Senate website, and that "members of the British Parliament might take exception to this self-serving characterization." It is based in part on the supposed ability of senators to talk as long as they want, but new filibuster rules have thwarted that. Also touched upon in the article is that it was designed by the founding fathers to be more deliberative than the populist House, whose members have to run for reelection every two years and thus were supposed to be closer to the whims of the people. (The president at the time was also not directed elected, and obviously fewer were allowed to vote back then, as well.) Today in the Senate says Kathy Kiely, the author of the article, it is rare to see most of the members even show up all at once for a proper debate. The page is partially locked but someone else is free to add any of this if they wish.--100.4.149.184 (talk) 12:27, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 October 2020

{{subst:trim|1=

}Arinze Chukwumerije} WEVtrbynunbf3rtgyuj (talk) 19:59, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: Unclear what change is requested. Terasail^[Talk] 22:09, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

What if the Senate is split evenly between two parties?

At several points in the Article there are references to the leader of the majority party (etc.). What happens if there is no majority party? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mfc (talk • contribs) 07:38, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

The Vice President would be tie breaker and there fore the majority party would be the Vice Presidents party unless the Vice President is a independent in that case there would be no majority or minority party — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.222.180.90 (talk) 15:22, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

the majority leader is decided by the majority party and in the case of a 50/50 split the majority party is decided by the vice president. This means that the new senate majority belongs to a democrat as it is known that both independents will vote for a democratic majority leader. 38.75.232.14 (talk) 18:01, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Can I change the Senator count, yet?

Like the title says. Do we have to wait for Warnock and Ossoff to be sworn in before I can change the party balance in the infobox? In the body, I can obviously explain the results and how they aren't senators yet, but what's the protocol for the infobox? Thanks. Cpotisch (talk) 21:45, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

They have not been sworn in yet, they are not yet senators, officially. Current events obviously may affect their swearing in, but it expected to occur within a few days. OfficerManatee (talk) 02:02, 7 January 2021 (UTC)