WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome to today's deep dive. It is. It's great 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:04.259 to have you sitting down with us. Yeah. Really 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:06.179 glad you're here joining us for this one. Because 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:10.380 today we are unpacking a concept that honestly, 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:12.660 on the surface, it sounds like standard H .R. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:14.960 policy. Right. Like totally mundane. Exactly. 00:00:15.179 --> 00:00:17.000 We're talking about how long someone has been 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.449 at their job, which I mean. In a normal workplace, 00:00:20.850 --> 00:00:23.489 having a decade of continuous service might get 00:00:23.489 --> 00:00:25.850 you an extra week of paid time off or a slightly 00:00:25.850 --> 00:00:28.010 better parking spot. Right. A marginally better 00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:30.570 parking spot. But inside the United States Senate, 00:00:30.710 --> 00:00:33.869 it dictates prime physical real estate, massive 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:37.070 political power and serious legislative influence. 00:00:37.189 --> 00:00:39.969 It's wild. It really is a masterclass in how 00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:42.710 unwritten traditions can completely override. 00:00:43.469 --> 00:00:45.549 formal frameworks. And to get into this, we are 00:00:45.549 --> 00:00:48.090 pulling our insights today from a really comprehensive 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:51.149 Wikipedia article. It's simply titled Seniority 00:00:51.149 --> 00:00:53.270 in the United States Senate. Yeah. And what we 00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:56.409 see in this source is an entire ecosystem built 00:00:56.409 --> 00:00:59.570 around longevity. Our mission for you today is 00:00:59.570 --> 00:01:02.929 to decode exactly how this system works. We are 00:01:02.929 --> 00:01:06.109 going to explore the massive perks that come 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:08.989 with simply, you know, outlasting your peers. 00:01:09.349 --> 00:01:11.569 The intense jockeying for start dates. Oh, the 00:01:11.569 --> 00:01:14.489 jockeying is intense. And of course, the incredibly 00:01:14.489 --> 00:01:17.810 arcane tiebreakers the Senate relies on when 00:01:17.810 --> 00:01:19.930 a whole class of freshmen walks through the door 00:01:19.930 --> 00:01:22.189 at the exact same time. Which happens more than 00:01:22.189 --> 00:01:24.170 you'd think. It really does. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:28.459 this. We know the basic senior and junior senator 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:30.920 dynamics from our home states. Like we hear those 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:33.540 terms on the news. Right. But inside the Capitol, 00:01:33.739 --> 00:01:36.340 those titles carry a very different kind of weight. 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:39.430 They absolutely do. And to understand why, we 00:01:39.430 --> 00:01:41.250 really have to look at the contrast between the 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.629 United States Constitution and the Senate's internal 00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:45.769 rules. Because there's a disconnect there. A 00:01:45.769 --> 00:01:48.109 huge one. If you read the Constitution, you will 00:01:48.109 --> 00:01:50.329 not find a single line that mandates differences 00:01:50.329 --> 00:01:53.670 in rights, voting weight, or power based on a 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:57.170 senator's tenure. Not one word. None. Constitutionally 00:01:57.170 --> 00:01:59.870 speaking, a senator who was sworn in five minutes 00:01:59.870 --> 00:02:02.969 ago is fundamentally equal to a senator who has 00:02:02.969 --> 00:02:05.709 been there for 40 years. But the Senate writes 00:02:05.709 --> 00:02:08.129 its own internal operating procedures. Exactly. 00:02:08.409 --> 00:02:11.409 And those rules completely invert that constitutional 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:14.250 equality. They've engineered this rigid hierarchy 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:18.409 that explicitly rewards longevity, meaning senior 00:02:18.409 --> 00:02:21.270 senators wield significantly more power, especially 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:23.530 within their own political caucuses. Which are 00:02:23.530 --> 00:02:25.669 the inner circles and organizational structures 00:02:25.669 --> 00:02:27.990 of the Democratic and Republican parties. Right. 00:02:28.050 --> 00:02:31.009 So the founders designed a flat hierarchy, but 00:02:31.009 --> 00:02:33.430 the institution itself immediately built a ladder. 00:02:33.770 --> 00:02:36.009 Inclining that ladder comes with highly tangible 00:02:36.009 --> 00:02:38.789 perks, and it actually starts with physical space. 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:41.750 Literally where you sit. Yes. According to the 00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:43.990 breakdown, greater seniority allows a senator 00:02:43.990 --> 00:02:47.009 to choose a desk closer to the front of the actual 00:02:47.009 --> 00:02:49.050 Senate chamber. And it goes beyond the chamber, 00:02:49.169 --> 00:02:51.849 too. Right, the office spaces. When better office 00:02:51.849 --> 00:02:54.289 suites open up in the historic Senate office 00:02:54.289 --> 00:02:56.610 buildings, like the Dirksen, Hart, or Russell 00:02:56.610 --> 00:02:59.569 buildings, the senators with the most seniority 00:02:59.569 --> 00:03:03.590 get first dibs on those vacated spaces. a fascinating 00:03:03.590 --> 00:03:06.969 dynamic to picture. I mean, you have these immensely 00:03:06.969 --> 00:03:10.530 powerful politicians carefully monitoring the 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:12.310 retirement announcements of their colleagues. 00:03:12.409 --> 00:03:14.629 Was waiting to pounce on a corner office down 00:03:14.629 --> 00:03:18.729 the hall. Yeah, precisely. But the perks of tenure 00:03:18.729 --> 00:03:21.770 go far beyond a nice view or a desk near the 00:03:21.770 --> 00:03:24.689 front of the room. The real currency of seniority 00:03:24.689 --> 00:03:28.289 is how it dictates the actual machinery of making 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:31.250 laws. The committees. The committees. Specifically, 00:03:32.509 --> 00:03:34.469 through committee assignments. And this is where 00:03:34.469 --> 00:03:36.689 the impact really hits home for anyone listening. 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:38.750 We often think about the Senate as a single room 00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:41.729 of 100 people voting on bills. But the actual 00:03:41.729 --> 00:03:45.189 work of drafting legislation happens in the committees. 00:03:45.349 --> 00:03:47.979 Exactly. Senators are given preferential treatment 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:50.120 in choosing their committee assignments based 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.340 purely on their overall Senate seniority. So 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:54.259 they get first pick of where they want to work. 00:03:54.379 --> 00:03:56.939 Right. But there is a crucial nuance to how power 00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:59.199 is distributed once they're actually on those 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:01.819 committees. Seniority on a specific committee 00:04:01.819 --> 00:04:04.300 is based entirely on the continuous length of 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:07.580 time serving on that specific committee. Continuous 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:11.080 time. Right. So you could have a situation where 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.580 a senator ranks above a colleague. in -committee 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:17.339 seniority and therefore wield more influence 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:20.220 over that specific policy area, even if they 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:22.100 are technically much more junior in the full 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:25.439 Senate. Wow. That completely recontextualizes 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.360 how legislation gets shaped. It does. Essentially, 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:31.220 seniority means a senator representing a state 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:35.279 with a relatively tiny population can wield significantly 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.959 more legislative power over the entire country 00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:41.000 than a newly elected senator representing nearly 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.920 40 million people in California or 30 million 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:47.079 in Texas. Simply because they have been sitting 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:49.379 on the Agriculture or Armed Services Committee 00:04:49.379 --> 00:04:52.870 for two decades. That is the exact... real -world 00:04:52.870 --> 00:04:55.230 implication. And it culminates in who actually 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:57.209 runs these committees. The committee chairmanship 00:04:57.209 --> 00:04:59.430 is traditionally handed to the most senior senator 00:04:59.430 --> 00:05:01.230 of the majority party serving on that committee. 00:05:01.350 --> 00:05:03.689 But wait, technically, aren't committee chairmanships 00:05:03.689 --> 00:05:06.430 elected positions within the caucus? They are, 00:05:06.629 --> 00:05:09.629 technically. But tradition dictates that the 00:05:09.629 --> 00:05:12.110 senior -most majority member gets it automatically, 00:05:12.389 --> 00:05:14.649 provided they don't already hold a conflicting 00:05:14.649 --> 00:05:17.189 position, like chairing another major committee. 00:05:17.389 --> 00:05:19.709 And the ranking member? The leader from the minority 00:05:19.709 --> 00:05:22.360 party on that same committee. Chosen in that 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.579 exact same tradition -bound way. Wait, if committee 00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:27.699 chairmanships are technically elected positions, 00:05:28.259 --> 00:05:30.959 the majority party could theoretically just vote 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:33.800 for whoever the most qualified or experienced 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.639 person is, regardless of tenure. They could. 00:05:36.779 --> 00:05:39.160 But they choose to defer to the calendar. Every 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.019 time. It really highlights how deeply infringed 00:05:42.019 --> 00:05:45.279 this tradition is. And there is one perk of seniority 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:47.720 that towers above all the others in terms of 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:50.649 sheer constitutional weight. The president pro 00:05:50.649 --> 00:05:53.670 tempore of the Senate. Yes. By tradition, the 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:55.529 longest serving senator of the majority party 00:05:55.529 --> 00:05:57.870 is named to this position. It is the second highest 00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:00.350 office in the Senate chamber, sitting just below 00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:02.490 the vice president of the United States. And 00:06:02.490 --> 00:06:04.750 the gravity of that role extends far outside 00:06:04.750 --> 00:06:07.490 the Capitol building. The president pro tempore 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:10.189 is third in the line of succession to the presidency 00:06:10.189 --> 00:06:12.699 of the United States. Just by virtue of being 00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:15.160 in the majority party and continually winning 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:17.459 your reelection campaigns. You were placed right 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:19.459 behind the vice president and the speaker of 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:22.660 the House to assume the presidency if a catastrophic 00:06:22.660 --> 00:06:25.620 event were to occur. It is an immense amount 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:28.740 of national authority derived entirely from a 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:31.579 localized track record of longevity. OK, so if 00:06:31.579 --> 00:06:33.920 longevity is the ultimate currency, then the 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:37.069 most critical question is. When does the clock 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:40.269 actually start? Right. The start dates. You would 00:06:40.269 --> 00:06:42.949 assume figuring out a start date is as simple 00:06:42.949 --> 00:06:45.949 as looking at a calendar. But the rules surrounding 00:06:45.949 --> 00:06:48.329 this are incredibly layered. It depends entirely 00:06:48.329 --> 00:06:51.209 on how the senator acquired the seat. OK, let's 00:06:51.209 --> 00:06:53.550 break that down. For the vast majority of senators, 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:55.970 they are elected in a standard general election 00:06:55.970 --> 00:06:58.829 in November. Right. And for those incoming freshmen, 00:06:58.990 --> 00:07:00.870 their terms officially began on the first day 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:02.850 of the new Congress, which is currently January 00:07:02.850 --> 00:07:07.300 3rd of odd numbered years. January 3rd. But the 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:09.540 source notes that January 3rd wasn't always the 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.319 start date. For a massive chunk of American history, 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:14.879 the start date was actually March 4th. Yeah, 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.860 that was a holdover from an era when travel across 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:20.160 the country to Washington by horse or carriage 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.600 took weeks or months. Which makes sense for the 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:26.379 1800s. Exactly. But as technology and transportation 00:07:26.379 --> 00:07:29.379 modernized, having a massive lame duck period 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:32.379 between a November election and a March swearing 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.000 in. became a huge liability for the government. 00:07:35.449 --> 00:07:39.189 So in 1935, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:41.850 went into effect. Officially moving the start 00:07:41.850 --> 00:07:45.089 date up to January 3rd. So standard general election 00:07:45.089 --> 00:07:48.129 winners start their clocks on January 3rd. But 00:07:48.129 --> 00:07:50.629 what about the edge cases? Like what if a state 00:07:50.629 --> 00:07:52.750 holds a runoff election that concludes after 00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:54.889 the new term has already started? Or there is 00:07:54.889 --> 00:07:56.970 a special election to fill a sudden vacancy. 00:07:57.129 --> 00:07:59.670 In those scenarios, the standard January 3rd 00:07:59.670 --> 00:08:02.110 rule gets thrown out entirely. Completely tossed. 00:08:02.490 --> 00:08:04.629 Yep. For runoffs occurring after the commencement. 00:08:04.810 --> 00:08:08.250 of a new term or for special elections, the seniority 00:08:08.250 --> 00:08:10.550 date is the exact date the senator is sworn in. 00:08:10.649 --> 00:08:12.970 And there is a brilliant little procedural quirk 00:08:12.970 --> 00:08:15.129 here. Oh, the simultaneous election quirk. Yes. 00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:17.810 If a senator is elected to fill the remainder 00:08:17.810 --> 00:08:20.430 of a term in a special election, but on that 00:08:20.430 --> 00:08:23.439 exact same November ballot. They are also elected 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:25.699 to the full six -year term that's going to start 00:08:25.699 --> 00:08:28.360 on the upcoming January 3rd. Right. The clock 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:30.319 starts on the date they are sworn in for the 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:32.720 special election. They essentially get a head 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.220 start over all the other general election winners 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:37.740 who have to wait until January. And a head start 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:40.740 is highly coveted. Which brings us to appointments. 00:08:41.450 --> 00:08:43.990 Right. If a senator leaves office early or passes 00:08:43.990 --> 00:08:46.509 away. A state governor will typically appoint 00:08:46.509 --> 00:08:48.789 someone to fill the seat until a special election 00:08:48.789 --> 00:08:52.250 can be held. For an appointed senator, the seniority 00:08:52.250 --> 00:08:54.190 date is usually the date the appointment is made 00:08:54.190 --> 00:08:56.330 official by the governor. Even if the actual 00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:59.049 swearing in ceremony on the Senate floor happens 00:08:59.049 --> 00:09:02.429 days or weeks later. Exactly. The date the paperwork 00:09:02.429 --> 00:09:04.769 is signed is the date that dictates their rank. 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:07.539 Which led to some crazy behavior back in the 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:10.220 day. You look back at the 1970s and senators 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:12.340 were actually treating this paperwork rule like 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:16.120 a strategic game. The 1970s loophole. Yeah, there 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:19.460 was this historical loophole where outgoing, 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:22.720 retiring senators would intentionally resign 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:25.059 a few days or weeks before their term officially 00:09:25.059 --> 00:09:28.519 ended. They did this so their home state governor 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:31.279 could officially appoint their chosen successor 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:34.840 to the seat. Right before the new Congress began. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.860 It was an incredible manipulation of the parliamentary 00:09:37.860 --> 00:09:40.940 rules. It really was. Now, if the incoming senator 00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:44.200 already held another office, like a seat in the 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:46.259 House of Representatives, they would have to 00:09:46.259 --> 00:09:49.240 resign from that office first. But by coordinating 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:51.919 this early retirement, the new appointee got 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.500 their official start date bumped up to late December. 00:09:55.049 --> 00:09:57.809 So when January 3rd rolled around, this newly 00:09:57.809 --> 00:10:00.409 appointed senator suddenly had greater seniority 00:10:00.409 --> 00:10:02.809 than the entire class of freshman senators walking 00:10:02.809 --> 00:10:04.750 through the door on their first day. It's like 00:10:04.750 --> 00:10:06.970 having the retiring executive at your company 00:10:06.970 --> 00:10:09.429 hand you his security badge a week early so you 00:10:09.429 --> 00:10:11.450 can get ahead of everyone else in the HR system 00:10:11.450 --> 00:10:14.570 for promotions. It's brilliant political gamesmanship, 00:10:14.690 --> 00:10:16.309 but you can see how that would instantly breed 00:10:16.309 --> 00:10:18.529 resentment among the rest of the incoming class. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:21.340 Oh, it absolutely disrupted the internal harmony 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:24.320 of the parties. The political caucuses rely on 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:27.240 a predictable, agreed upon hierarchy to function. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:31.559 So by 1980, both major parties realized this 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:34.059 loophole was creating artificial imbalances. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:36.279 And they shut it down. They implemented rule 00:10:36.279 --> 00:10:39.669 changes that completely stripped away. Any seniority 00:10:39.669 --> 00:10:41.990 advantages gained through these early resignations, 00:10:42.070 --> 00:10:44.389 the line cutting was permanently shut down. Okay, 00:10:44.429 --> 00:10:47.210 so they closed the 1970s loophole to keep people 00:10:47.210 --> 00:10:49.769 from cutting the line. But that creates an entirely 00:10:49.769 --> 00:10:53.190 new problem. Right, the ties. Yes. Here's where 00:10:53.190 --> 00:10:56.049 it gets really interesting. If nobody can cut 00:10:56.049 --> 00:10:58.370 the line and an entire class of freshmen walks 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:00.370 through the door on January 3rd at the exact 00:11:00.370 --> 00:11:03.610 same time, who gets to be first? How do you rank 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:06.110 a dozen people who all have the exact same start 00:11:06.110 --> 00:11:08.220 date? This is where the Senate has developed 00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:11.059 a descending ladder of exclusivity. They have 00:11:11.059 --> 00:11:14.059 a very rigid hierarchy of prior service to act 00:11:14.059 --> 00:11:16.179 as the ultimate tiebreakers. Essentially looking 00:11:16.179 --> 00:11:18.960 at their resumes. Exactly. If multiple senators 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:21.580 start on the exact same day, the Senate looks 00:11:21.580 --> 00:11:23.600 at their resumes to see who belonged to the most 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:26.039 exclusive government club prior to arriving. 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:29.700 And the ultimate trump card on that ladder is 00:11:29.700 --> 00:11:32.720 being a former senator. Right. If you served 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.240 in the Senate previously, lost an election or 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:37.679 retired and then managed to win your way back 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.000 in years later, you bypass everyone and go straight 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.059 to the top of your incoming class. Which makes 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:45.720 practical sense. You require the least onboarding. 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:48.820 Exactly. But if nobody in the tied group is a 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:51.990 former senator. They moved to the second rung 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:54.129 of the ladder, which is former Vice President 00:11:54.129 --> 00:11:56.850 of the United States. And after that? The third 00:11:56.850 --> 00:11:59.049 tiebreaker is former member of the United States 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:01.750 House of Representatives. And if multiple incoming 00:12:01.750 --> 00:12:04.850 senators have House experience, they simply use 00:12:04.850 --> 00:12:06.929 the total length of time served in the House 00:12:06.929 --> 00:12:10.320 to break that secondary tie. OK, so former senators 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.419 get the fast track, then vice presidents, then 00:12:12.419 --> 00:12:15.100 House members. What if the tie still isn't broken? 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.360 The fourth rung is former member of the United 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.659 States cabinet. The fifth is former state governor. 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:24.059 Notice the pattern here. Prior federal legislative 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:27.179 or executive experience heavily outweighs state 00:12:27.179 --> 00:12:29.159 level executive experience in the eyes of the 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:32.000 Senate rules. Yeah, that bias is very clear. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:35.059 To see how this latter works in practice, we 00:12:35.059 --> 00:12:37.120 can actually look at the incoming Senate class 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.559 of 2011. A great example. On January 3rd of that 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.740 year, seven new senators all took the oath of 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:46.840 office on the exact same day. Seven of them. 00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:49.100 So the Senate immediately looked at their resumes. 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:53.529 Jerry Moran and John Boozman both had prior experience 00:12:53.529 --> 00:12:55.570 in the House of Representatives, so they instantly 00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:57.570 bypassed the rest of the group. And then they 00:12:57.570 --> 00:12:59.549 had to break the tie between those two. Right. 00:12:59.809 --> 00:13:02.629 Moran had served in the House for 14 years and 00:13:02.629 --> 00:13:05.429 Boozman had served for nine. So Moran took the 00:13:05.429 --> 00:13:08.529 top spot, followed by Boozman. And right behind 00:13:08.529 --> 00:13:10.919 them was John Hoeven. He had never served in 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:12.679 the House or the Senate, but he was a former 00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:15.960 governor. Since governor is fifth on the tiebreaker 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.399 list, he was ranked immediately after the two 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.679 former House members. But that left four more 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:23.860 senators in that 2011 class. Ron Johnson, Rand 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:27.679 Paul, Richard Blumenthal, and Mike Lee. And none 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:30.220 of those four men had any prior qualifying experience 00:13:30.220 --> 00:13:32.779 on that five -point hierarchy. No Senate, no 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.440 VP, no House, no Cabinet, no governor. Nothing 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:37.399 on the latter. So what do you do with a room 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.620 full of true rookies? You move to the final metric, 00:13:40.820 --> 00:13:44.580 the population of the senator's home state. Population. 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:48.440 Specifically, the Senate rules dictate they must 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.679 use the population data from the most recent 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:52.679 census at the time the senator takes office. 00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:55.559 The senator from the state with the larger population 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:59.240 gets the higher seniority ranking. So for Johnson, 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:02.779 Paul, Blumenthal and Lee, because they took office 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:06.309 in 2011. the Senate had to use the data from 00:14:06.309 --> 00:14:09.549 the 2000 census. Based purely on how many people 00:14:09.549 --> 00:14:11.450 lived in their respective states a full decade 00:14:11.450 --> 00:14:14.909 earlier, they were ranked 27th to 33rd in seniority. 00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:17.590 when that Congress convened. That is wild. The 00:14:17.590 --> 00:14:19.710 amount of federal legislative power you are granted 00:14:19.710 --> 00:14:22.350 on day one can literally be determined by a 10 00:14:22.350 --> 00:14:24.350 year old demographic headcount. It highlights 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:27.129 how pragmatic and sometimes arbitrary the institution 00:14:27.129 --> 00:14:29.529 has to be just to maintain an orderly hierarchy. 00:14:29.809 --> 00:14:31.649 But we have to take this to its absolute logical 00:14:31.649 --> 00:14:34.649 extreme. What happens if a state sends two brand 00:14:34.649 --> 00:14:36.590 new senators to Washington on the exact same 00:14:36.590 --> 00:14:39.409 day and neither of them has any prior qualifying 00:14:39.409 --> 00:14:42.039 government experience? The ultimate tie. Right. 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:44.220 You can't use the state population tiebreaker 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.019 because they represent the exact same state. 00:14:46.179 --> 00:14:48.840 That incredibly rare scenario actually happened 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:52.259 in 2021 with the senators from Georgia. John 00:14:52.259 --> 00:14:55.220 Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Both were newly elected. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:59.320 Both were sworn in on January 20th, 2021. And 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:01.960 neither had any prior government service that 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:05.500 fit the tiebreaker hierarchy. Every single conventional 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:08.919 metric was a dead heat. So the Senate had to 00:15:08.919 --> 00:15:11.860 rely on the alphabetical last resort. They literally 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:14.779 had to use the alphabet. If two senators are 00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:17.159 tied on every single criteria, the one whose 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:19.419 surname comes first alphabetically is deemed 00:15:19.419 --> 00:15:21.940 the senior senator. It's that simple. Osforo 00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:24.539 Ossoff comes before W for Warnock, so Ossoff 00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:26.500 was named the senior senator. What's fascinating 00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:29.460 here is how a last name determines federal ranking. 00:15:29.779 --> 00:15:32.799 Exactly. Now, the source does note that Ossoff 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:35.440 had been elected to a full six -year term, while 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:37.679 Warnock was elected to finish a special term. 00:15:37.950 --> 00:15:40.330 which was an additional factor. But the alphabetical 00:15:40.330 --> 00:15:43.309 rule was the defining official tiebreaker. So 00:15:43.309 --> 00:15:45.950 the highest levels of federal legislative hierarchy 00:15:45.950 --> 00:15:48.950 were quite literally decided by elementary school 00:15:48.950 --> 00:15:52.309 roll call rules. It is just incredible. It really 00:15:52.309 --> 00:15:54.389 is. If we pull up the current roster provided 00:15:54.389 --> 00:15:56.690 in the source material, it really puts this entire 00:15:56.690 --> 00:15:59.009 system into perspective. We're going to look 00:15:59.009 --> 00:16:01.929 at some of these specific names and party affiliations 00:16:01.929 --> 00:16:04.669 exactly as they are documented, just to illustrate 00:16:04.669 --> 00:16:08.090 how decades of this exact system look when stacked 00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:10.480 up today. When you look at the very top of the 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.639 list, the sheer historical continuity is staggering. 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:16.720 Rank number one belongs to Chuck Grassley, a 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:18.940 Republican from Iowa. His seniority date goes 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:22.059 all the way back to January 3rd, 1981. Because 00:16:22.059 --> 00:16:24.879 he has held that seat since 1981. And because 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:27.220 his party is in the majority, the source notes 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:29.639 he holds the title of president pro tempore. 00:16:29.779 --> 00:16:31.600 And he is the chair of the Judiciary Committee. 00:16:31.779 --> 00:16:33.879 That is the ultimate realization of the perks 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:35.860 we discussed earlier. Sitting right behind him 00:16:35.860 --> 00:16:38.120 at number two is Mitch McConnell, a Republican 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.700 from Kentucky with a seniority date of January 00:16:40.700 --> 00:16:43.960 3rd, 1985. And at number three is Patty Murray, 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:46.480 a Democrat from Washington who started her tenure 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.740 on January 3rd, 1993. You are looking at individuals 00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:52.559 who have been shaping federal policy, confirming 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:55.399 judges, and commanding committee agendas across 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:58.120 multiple presidential administrations entirely 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:01.379 uninterrupted. But looking at the full list also 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:04.619 reveals some amazing mathematical anomalies based 00:17:04.619 --> 00:17:07.319 on how the senior and junior titles are distributed 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.019 locally. Because every state must have one senior 00:17:11.019 --> 00:17:13.900 and one junior senator, someone in the chamber 00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:16.640 has to be the most senior of all the junior senators. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:19.299 Yes, the most senior junior senator is Maria 00:17:19.299 --> 00:17:22.380 Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington. She sits 00:17:22.380 --> 00:17:24.779 at rank number 10 overall, having taken office 00:17:24.779 --> 00:17:28.640 on January 3rd, 2001. By any metric, she is incredibly 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.180 senior compared to the vast majority of the chamber. 00:17:31.339 --> 00:17:33.559 But she represents Washington state, exactly 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:35.579 like Patty Murray. And since Patty Murray is 00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:37.700 number three overall, having started in 1993, 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:40.779 Murray naturally holds the title of senior senator 00:17:40.779 --> 00:17:42.920 from Washington. That leaves Maria Cantwell, 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.200 despite outranking 90 other people in the building, 00:17:45.339 --> 00:17:47.920 carrying the junior title. And you see the exact 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:50.299 inverse of that dynamic at the very bottom of 00:17:50.299 --> 00:17:52.960 the list. We have Bernie Moreno, a Republican 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.970 from Ohio, sitting at rank number 95. That means 00:17:55.970 --> 00:17:58.630 there are 94 people ahead of him in line for 00:17:58.630 --> 00:18:01.150 desk assignments, office space, and committee 00:18:01.150 --> 00:18:04.410 leadership. Yet his counterpart from Ohio, John 00:18:04.410 --> 00:18:07.170 Husted, was sworn in slightly later, placing 00:18:07.170 --> 00:18:09.630 him at rank number 99. Because Moreno started 00:18:09.630 --> 00:18:12.049 before Husted, Moreno is technically the senior 00:18:12.049 --> 00:18:14.970 senator from Ohio. So sitting almost at the very 00:18:14.970 --> 00:18:17.789 bottom of the national hierarchy at rank 95, 00:18:18.250 --> 00:18:21.529 Bernie Moreno officially holds the title of the 00:18:21.529 --> 00:18:24.460 Senate's most junior senior senator. If we connect 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:27.059 this to the bigger picture, it perfectly encapsulates 00:18:27.059 --> 00:18:29.660 how localized state dynamics operate simultaneously 00:18:29.660 --> 00:18:33.000 alongside the rigid national ranking. The title 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.359 you hold at home might be senior, but the power 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.480 you wield in Washington is dictated entirely 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.900 by your overall rank out of 100. Exactly. So 00:18:40.900 --> 00:18:43.269 what does this all mean? We started out trying 00:18:43.269 --> 00:18:46.029 to understand a seemingly simple workplace concept. 00:18:46.230 --> 00:18:48.329 But what we found is that seniority in the United 00:18:48.329 --> 00:18:50.690 States Senate is an unwritten, entirely self 00:18:50.690 --> 00:18:52.910 -imposed phenomenon. The Constitution demanded 00:18:52.910 --> 00:18:55.269 equality, but the institution demanded order. 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:58.000 And to maintain that order, they built a system 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.519 that uses calendars, past resumes, decade old 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.619 census data, and even the alphabet to distribute 00:19:04.619 --> 00:19:07.059 immense political power, physical real estate 00:19:07.059 --> 00:19:09.819 and legislative influence over the entire country. 00:19:09.859 --> 00:19:13.579 It is a brilliantly complex ecosystem. And before 00:19:13.579 --> 00:19:15.380 we wrap up today, I want to leave you with one 00:19:15.380 --> 00:19:18.640 final thought to mull over regarding that state 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:20.839 population tiebreaker we discussed earlier. The 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:23.660 census data rule. Right. Remember, the rules 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:26.079 explicitly say they must use the most recent 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.099 census when a new senator takes office. Consider 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:31.380 what happens if a state experiences a massive 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:34.730 transformative population boom. Right after a 00:19:34.730 --> 00:19:36.970 census year is recorded. Like a mass migration 00:19:36.970 --> 00:19:40.349 to a specific state in 2012, right after the 00:19:40.349 --> 00:19:43.690 2010 census was locked in. Exactly. A newly elected 00:19:43.690 --> 00:19:46.089 senator from that booming state might be severely 00:19:46.089 --> 00:19:48.289 penalized in the seniority rankings for an entire 00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:50.710 decade. They could be placed behind a senator 00:19:50.710 --> 00:19:52.769 from a state that is actually much smaller in 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:55.069 reality today, all just because the official 00:19:55.069 --> 00:19:57.089 federal paperwork hasn't caught up to the demographic 00:19:57.089 --> 00:20:00.269 shift. That is wild. It really makes you wonder. 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.160 How much of national policy, committee leadership 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:06.940 and funding allocation is shaped not just by 00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:08.920 the will of the voters or the expertise of the 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.900 legislators, but by the sheer arbitrary luck 00:20:11.900 --> 00:20:14.880 of timing? That is a profound final thought. 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:17.740 A local population boom could actually cost your 00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:19.720 state's representative a critical committee seat 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:21.619 simply because of the year the census was printed. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:24.660 We want to thank you so much for joining us on 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:26.400 this deep dive into the hidden mechanics of the 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:28.839 Senate. Keep questioning how the rules are made 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:29.980 and always stay curious.