Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) “has offered to give up a powerful subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee for recent Democratic convert, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.),” Roll Call reports.
The move comes amid growing questions about what Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promised to do for Specter when he decided to bolt the Republican Party last week. Originally, both Specter and Reid indicated that the five-term Pennsylvania Senator would keep his seniority on committees, which would have put him ahead of many Democrats on those panels. But on Tuesday, Reid demoted Specter to the lowest-ranking Democratic slots on the Judiciary, Appropriations, and Environment and Public Works panels.
Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker confirmed that Durbin is set to relinquish the gavel of the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs to Specter.
But don’t worry, Durbin will be getting something in return for himself.
However, Durbin expects the full committee to re-establish the now-defunct Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law so that Durbin will still chair a subpanel on Judiciary.
Durbin chaired the Human Rights and the Law panel in the last Congress, but it was disbanded during the 111th.
That subcommittee is “considered the most prestigious of the subpanels on Judiciary, because it has jurisdiction over as much as 70 percent of the Justice Department’s budget and is responsible for writing crime and drug sentencing laws.”
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and all other necessary committee Democrats have signed off on this move.
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