Democrats announce Senate committee assignments

January 11, 2001
Web posted at: 5:48 p.m. EST (2248 GMT)

By Chris Black/CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, has been assigned to three Senate committees -- Health, Education, Labor and Public Works; Budget; and Environment and Public Works, Democratic leaders announced Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle released the list of Democratic committee assignments for the 107th Congress after spending two days trying to meet the competing demands of 50 Democratic senators. Nine new Democrats joined the Senate after the November elections.

In other notable assignments, Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will become the second Democratic woman to serve on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Other new Democrats on that committee are Daschle, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey.

Senators do the bulk of their legislative work in committee and committee assignments give individual Senators a platform for making an impact on federal policy and law.

This is the third time in history the Senate will be evenly split between the two parties and in an unprecedented agreement, the two Senate leaders, Daschle and Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, agreed to split the membership of each committee evenly between the two parties. This gives Democrats a greater influence in shaping legislation, including items on President-elect George W. Bush's agenda.