Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), Senate Majority Leader. Click on picture for larger image

Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-SD), Senate Minority Leader. Click on picture for larger image

The Majority party is that party which had more Senators elected to that Congress than the other party. The party with fewer Senators becomes the Minority party for that Congress. In the current Congress, the 106th, Republicans have 54 Senators and Democrats have 46. So during the 106th, Republicans are the Majority party and Democrats the Minority. Democrats last had majority status in the 103rd Congress, 1993-1994.

The Republicans lost a seat and the Democrats gained one when Zell Miller [D-GA] was appointed by the governor of Georgia to temporarily replace Senator Paul Coverdell, who died on July 18, 2000. On November 7, Georgia voters will elect a permanent Senator to fill out the remaining 4 years in Senator Coverdell's term, beginning with the 107th Congress.

The terms majority/minority are used to differentiate in many aspects of Senate operations and procedure. The Senator elected by the Republicans in this Congress to be their party leader becomes the Majority Leader of the Senate (Trent Lott, R-MS) and the Democrat's elected leader becomes the Minority Leader (Thomas Daschle, D-SD). The Democrats sit on the right side of the main aisle on the Senate floor (as viewed by the Presiding Officer) while Republicans sit on the left side. Key staff on Senate committees are known as Majority Counsel or Minority Counsel, depending on which party hired them. If a limit on debate time for a bill has been agreed to, the time is usually "equally divided between the majority and minority side of the aisle."

The Majority party is given the responsibility to govern the Senate and establish its legislative agenda. Only Majority Senators preside in the Chair. The Majority Leader initiates and concludes the process by which the decisions are made on which bills will, and which will not, receive floor consideration. Committee chairmen are all of the Majority party, while the top-ranking minority Member on each committee is known as its "ranking Member." Many of the key employees of the Senate, e.g. the Parliamentarian, the Secretary of the Senate, the Sergeant-at-Arms, are selected by the Majority Leader. Finally, with more members in their party than in the minority, the Majority party has the significant advantage (but not guarantee) of being able to win adoption of its preferred language on bills and amendments.