Sen.-elect Scott Brown taking seat Thursday, giving GOP pivotal 41st vote against Obama agenda
By Andrew Miga, APThursday, February 4, 2010
Brown taking over the late Sen. Kennedy’s seat
WASHINGTON — Republican Scott Brown said fixing the nation’s ailing economy would be his top priority as he prepared Thursday to take his Senate seat a week earlier than he had planned.
“It’s a new era and it’s really time to get to work,” Brown told a throng of reporters as he arrived on Capitol Hill.
With Brown seated, Democrats will lose their supermajority and Republicans will gain the 41st vote they can use to block President Barack Obama’s agenda.
Asked about what he would focus on in his new job, Brown replied: “Obviously it’s jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, trying to figure out how we can get the economy moving again.”
A swearing-in ceremony was set for 5 p.m. Thursday for the little-known Massachusetts state senator who shocked the nation with his upset victory last month over a favored Democrat and put the 2010 midterm elections in play for a possible GOP takeover of Congress.
Originally, Brown had said he did not want to be sworn in until Feb. 11.
On Wednesday, Brown said he wanted to move up the swearing-in so that he could participate in upcoming Senate votes. On Thursday morning, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick certified the results of Brown’s upset win, clearing the way for him to take the oath of office.
Depending on how Democrats set the Senate’s calendar, Brown’s first vote could be against the confirmation of Craig Becker, a lawyer for the Service Employees International Union, to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board.
This is the federal panel that referees private sector labor-management disputes, and the NLRB often has been caught in the Washington political crossfire, as Democrats with traditional organized labor backing have long dueled on business/labor issues with Republicans, who long have had closer ties to the business community.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved Becker’s nomination on a party-line 13-10 vote Thursday, sending it to the full Senate. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the committee’s chairman, said Democrats would move a vote on Becker “as expeditiously as possible on the floor.”
Republicans have held up Becker’s confirmation for months, saying they fear he might use the post to make labor laws more union-friendly without congressional approval.
Conservative radio hosts and newspaper columnists had also pressed for Brown to take office earlier, filling the last two years of the term of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. One had dubbed his wait a “three-week victory lap” since the Jan. 19 special election in which Brown defeated Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley. Kennedy died in August from brain cancer.
Brown rode a wave of populist, anti-government sentiment to claim a seat Kennedy had held in Democratic-dominated Massachusetts for nearly a half-century.
His victory rocked Democrats, put a dagger in Obama’s health care overhaul just as it was nearing the legislative finish line and catapulted Brown onto the national stage. He made a recent appearance on “The Jay Leno Show.”
Brown, 50, has promised to be an independent voice. He recently said he’s told Senate Republican leaders they won’t always be able to count on his vote.
Associated Press writer Sam Hananel contributed to this report.
Tags: Barack Obama, Edward Kennedy, Geography, Government Regulations, Industry Regulation, Labor Issues, Local Elections, Massachusetts, North America, State Elections, United States, Washington
