In january. Next, we look at the historical role of the Senate Majority leader and its four former leaders, robert byrd, harold baker, and we hear from Donald Richie and mitch mcconnell. Donald richie, thank you for being with us. The Senate Majority leader is not a position in the constitution. How did the job evolve . We looked at a former speaker of the house, who contacted us and say why is the president pro tem a matter of succession but not the majority leader . That is the functional equivalent. The speaker of the house is written into the constitution, to president pro tem is as well. No mention of a majority or minority leader. The constitution did not anticipate political parties. We had no majority leader in the history of the senate from 1839 to 1914. For most of the history of the senate, we did not have a majority leader. There were chairmen of committees who would take care of things on the floor, and the chairman of Party Conferences that would open up and close things
Majority leader, the functional equivalent on the senate side. The speaker of the house is written in the constitution. No mention of a majority or minority leader. Thats because the constitution did not anticipate political parties. Parties. We had no majority leader in the history of the senate from 1839 to 1914. There were chairman of committees who would take care of things and the chairman of the Party Conferences that open up and close things the way they do today. But nobody sitting down there trying to organize what happened on the floor on a daily basis. That changed in 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was elected president. Former president to prince ton university. A phd. In history and political science. He had written his doctoral information about congress. He had strong ideas about how congress was to operate and the vicious legislative agenda. He prevailed on the democrat kraatzes. He had come in the majority to pick one of their senators to be a leader, the person who could ta
Time as well. I want to begin as the freshman republican president. You you expect this funding issue to be a contentious debate . Do you foresee any possibility that dhs funding could be forestalled. I think it will be a contentious debate. I think what the president did was poorly designed. The republicans in both the house and the senate will react to it. Whether it in setup in some sort of Agency Shutdown down as opposed to government shutdown, i help not. I hope we can work through the issue and make sure we can be find defund the parts of the executive order that the present has issued. And move on, and make sure the other functions of the government are funded, the transition as smooth. The issue really is immigration. He expect both sides to come together on an immigration bill that would resend the executive order . That would be my hope. Im not sure that that will happen in the next couple of mmonths. It is my hope that congress will pass a Guest Worker Program beef , up Bord