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60 unusual facts about United States Senate


Agenda 21

The United States is a signatory country to Agenda 21, but because Agenda 21 is a legally non-binding statement of intent and not a treaty, the United States Senate was not required to hold a formal debate or vote on it.

Alabama elections, 2004

The 2004 United States Senate election in Alabama took place on November 2, 2004 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives, various state and local elections, and the presidential election of that year.

Anti-pharming

In March 2005, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005, a bill that proposes a five-year prison sentence and/or fine for individuals who execute phishing attacks and use information garnered through online fraud such as phishing and pharming to commit crimes such as identity theft.

Benjamin Franklin Tilley

A treaty to that effect was written and submitted, but it was not approved by the United States Senate.

Blue slip

In the Senate, a blue slip is an opinion written by a Senator from the state where a federal judicial nominee resides.

Book TV

While the primary mission of C-SPAN2 is live coverage of the United States Senate, Book TV programs are sometimes also scheduled to air during the week when the Senate is not in session.

Canadian federal election, 1957

A final parliamentary conflict was sparked by the suicide of Canadian Ambassador to Egypt E.H. Norman in the midst of allegations made by a United States Senate subcommittee that Norman had communist links.

Chappaquiddick Island

The island became internationally recognized following the July 18, 1969 incident, where the car of U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy was accidentally driven off the island's Dike Bridge, which fatally trapped his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, inside.

FGR-17 Viper

Following the anger caused by the letting of this second contract and because of the earlier GAO report on the Viper, massive cost overruns, and then the safety concerns revealed in the Army's evaluations, in December 1982 Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH) inserted an amendment into the Army's funding bill.

George H. Bender

He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1939 to 1947 and 1951 to 1954, and also in the U.S. Senate from 1954 to 1957.

George H. McLain

McLain also ran twice for the United States Senate: as a write-in Democrat in 1946 (special election) and for his party's nomination 1964, losing both times.

George John Kindel

He did not seek renomination in 1914, but was an unsuccessful Independent candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1914.

Government of Memphis, Tennessee

Harold, Jr. gave up the seat to make an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist.

Hamilton County, New York

It also voted for John Faso over Eliot Spitzer for Governor in 2006, and for John Spencer 55.5%-42.1% over incumbent Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate in 2006.

Harry Augustus Garfield

This roused a storm of protest from many manufacturers, and the U.S. Senate voted a resolution, requesting postponement, but this reached him after the order had been signed.

Harry S. Truman Supreme Court candidates

On September 19, 1945, Truman nominated Burton, who was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on the same day by voice vote, without hearing or debate.

Herbert Hoover Supreme Court candidates

Additionally, with his failed nomination of John J. Parker, Hoover became the first president since Grover Cleveland to have a Supreme Court nomination rejected by the United States Senate.

Indirect election

In the United States, most members of the Senate were elected by the legislatures of the states until 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment instituted direct elections for those office-holders.

John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates

White was confirmed by the United States Senate just eight days later, on April 11, 1962, in a voice vote.

John Michael Manos

He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 26, 1976, and received his commission on March 29, 1976.

Jordan Lake

Originally authorized in 1963 as the New Hope Lake Project, the reservoir was renamed in 1974 in memory of B. Everett Jordan, former North Carolina Senator.

Keith Norton

As environment minister, he became the first Canadian politician to speak before a committee of the United States Senate.

Lodge-Philbin Act

The Act was pushed through Congress by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. during the Cold War, looking especially for recruits from Eastern Europe (the Soviet Bloc) to form infiltration units working in that part of the world.

Lyndon B. Johnson Supreme Court candidates

However, the Warren Court's form of jurisprudence had angered many conservative members of the United States Senate, and the nomination of Fortas provided the first opportunity for these senators to register their disenchantment with the direction of the Court; they planned to filibuster Fortas' nomination.

Morgan Report

The Morgan Report was the final result of an official U.S. Congressional investigation into the overthrow, conducted by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, whose chairman was Senator John Tyler Morgan, Democrat of Alabama.

National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning

Since the advent of air travel, the United States Senate no longer needs to have long recesses due to the difficulty of travel.

Objection to the consideration of a question

In the United States, particularly in the United States Senate, a motion to table is more common because it only requires a simple majority.

Office of War Mobilization

It was headed by James F. Byrnes, a former U.S. Senator and Supreme Court Justice.

Office on Violence Against Women

Since 2002, the Director of the OVW has been a position that must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Point of order

In the United States Senate, the chair's ruling may be appealed by any Senator.

Recorded vote

In the Senate, there is only one way to obtain a recorded vote on a pending question, and it is the roll call vote.

Republican Conference Chair

Republican Conference Chair may refer either to the United States Senate Republican Conference Chair, a position in the Republican party leadership of the United States Senate, or its House analogue, the Republican Conference Chairman of the United States House of Representatives.

Richard O. Boyer

Richard Owen Boyer (January 10, 1903 – August 7, 1973) was an American freelance journalist who, before appearing at a Senate hearing, had contributed profiles to The New Yorker and written for the Daily Worker.

Seal of the Vice President of the United States

The earliest known reference to a vice presidential seal was in a November 6, 1846 letter from the Chief Clerk of the United States Senate, William Hickey, to a Maryland seal engraver named Edward Stabler (who had made many seals for the government, and would make one for the President a few years later).

Signal Corps in the American Civil War

The United States Senate eventually approved the appropriations bill, over the objections of Jefferson Davis, now Senator from Mississippi, and President James Buchanan signed it into law on June 21, 1860, the date now celebrated as the birthday of the modern U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Skilcraft

In 1971, Senator Jacob Javits introduced legislation extending the act to severely handicapped individuals.

Startling Stories

A subsequent Senate subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response.

Stately Victor

Owned by Thomas F. and Jack Conway, the latter once a Kentucky Democratic Party candidate for the United States Senate, Stately Victor won the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 10, 2010, prior to running in the Kentucky Derby.

Strategic use of motions

Another parliamentary maneuver, which has been used in the United States Senate, is the so-called "nuclear option" in which a majority sidesteps the two-thirds vote requirement to suspend the rules by raising a point of order in favor of their favored interpretation of the rules, followed by an appeal in which the interpretation is then imposed by a majority vote.

Syrian American Council

SAC advocates the U.S. government including President Barack Obama, Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives through its Washington, D.C., office for statements and policy changes to support the Syrian revolution.

The Problem of Thor Bridge

Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former Senator for "some Western state", approaches Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime.

The Silver Star Families of America

On May 19, 2010 the United States Senate followed suit and approved Senate Resolution 534 and it was sent to the President of the United States.

The Terrorists

The main plot of the book involves Martin Beck leading a team of policemen to prevent a presumed terrorist attack on a highly unpopular American senator who is paying an official visit to Sweden.

Thomas B. Fargo

However, an uproar was created in the Senate as it was customary for a Navy flag officer to serve as Commander of PACOM and no other branches, thus the Air Force general was not confirmed by the Senate.

Thomas Holdup Stevens

Commodore Chauncey appointed him acting lieutenant in January 1813 and his permanent commission in that rank, to date from July 24, was confirmed by the Senate on August 3.

Thomas R. Chandler

Chandler was opposed by Sharonville attorney Lee Hornberger; Ralph Applegate, the business agent of an architect, who lived outside the district in Columbus; Ray Mitchell, a perennial candidate and business broker from Montgomery County's Miami Township, also outside the district; and Robert Dale McDilda Sr. of Price Hill, who ran for the United States Senate in Alabama in 1986.

Toombs County, Georgia

The County is named for Robert Toombs, United States representative and senator.

U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the agency's board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate.

United States Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

The Deputy Secretary is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

United States Senate election in Connecticut, 1986

The 1986 United States Senate election in Connecticut took place on November 3, 1986, alongside other elections to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.

United States Senate election in Connecticut, 1992

The 1992 United States Senate election in Connecticut took place on November 3, 1992, alongside other elections to the United States Senate in 34 other states, as well as with a presidential election and elections to the United States House of Representatives in all 50 states.

United States Senate election in Florida, 1998

The 1998 United States Senate election in Florida took place on November 3, 1998 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

United States Senate elections, 1876

The United States Senate election of 1876 was an election in which the Democratic Party gained three seats in the United States Senate, and which coincided with Rutherford B. Hayes narrow election as President.

United States Senate elections, 1886

The United States Senate election of 1886 was an election which had the Republican Party lose three seats in the United States Senate.

United States Senate elections, 1890

The United States Senate election of 1890 was an election in which the Republican Party lost two seats in the United States Senate, though still retaining a commanding majority.

United States Senate elections, 1906

The United States Senate election of 1906 was an election which had the Republican Party gain three seats in the United States Senate, expanding their majority to almost twice that of the opposing Democratic Party.

United States v. Lovett

The Senate Appropriations Committee and the full Senate unanimously and repeatedly rejected the measure.

Voice of the Martyrs

In 1966, Wurmbrand testified before the Internal Security Subcommittee of the US Senate about the treatment that Christians received under Communist governments, raising world-wide interest in Christian persecution, and through his influence several missions were founded around the world to help support Christians who suffered under Communist persecution.

Willi Cicci

He recovers, and later joins Pentangeli in testifying against Michael at the Senate hearings on organized crime.

William Wesley Cox

He ran in many elections, and his last attempt at office was in 1944, running for the United States Senate seat in Missouri, at the age of 79.


1967 Oak Lawn tornado outbreak

Senator Charles Percy and Illinois Governor Otto Kerner visited to speak with victims and thank the recovery volunteers.

A Sense of Where You Are

In A Sense of Where You Are, John McPhee profiles Bill Bradley during Bradley's senior year at Princeton University. Bradley, who would later play in the National Basketball Association and serve in the United States Senate, was widely regarded as one of the best basketball players in the country, and his status as a Rhodes Scholar playing in the Ivy League only added to his allure.

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

The AND has been criticized for its connections to the pharmaceutical industry, including an inquiry from Senator Chuck Grassley.

Amy Holmes

After working for several years for Independent Women's Forum, from 2003 to 2006 Holmes wrote Senate floor statements for Bill Frist, a two-term United States Senator from Tennessee and the Republican Majority Leader.

Ana Marie Cox

Cox and Wonkette gained notoriety in the political world for publicizing the story of Jessica Cutler, also known as "Washingtonienne", a staff assistant to Senator Mike DeWine (R.-Ohio) who accepted money from a George W. Bush administration official and others in exchange for sexual favors.

Ashkan Soltani

In 2011, he testified at two different hearings held by US Senate committees focused on privacy related matters.

Betty Little

After the appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand to the United States Senate in January 2009, Little expressed interest in running for U.S. Congress in New York's 20th congressional district and announced her intention to seek the Republican nomination for the special election for the seat.

Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell

During the 108th Congress another almost identical resolution, SRes 223 was introduced in the United States Senate, but which was then sent to a committee where it died, unenacted.

Compleat Angler Hotel

In addition to Ernest Hemingway, additional notable visitors have included Lucille Ball, singer and writer Jimmy Buffett, and Colorado senator Gary Hart, whose presidential aspirations were sunken in 1987 when compromising photographs were released of him at the lodge with a woman who was not his wife.

Congressional Committees Investigating The Iran-Contra Affair

The Congressional Committees Investigating The Iran-Contra Affair were committees of the United States House of Representatives and of the United States Senate formed in January 1987 to investigate the Iran-Contra affair.

D. John Markey

In 1946, Markey ran a closely contested but unsuccessful campaign for one of Maryland's U.S. Senate seats as a Republican against former Governor Herbert O'Conor.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse

U.S. Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Alfonse D'Amato, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Second Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jon O. Newman, Southern District of New York Chief Judge Thomas P. Griesa attended the ceremony.

Detroit Historical Museum

In attendance were such dignitaries as Governor G. Mennen Williams, Mayor Albert E. Cobo, U.S. Senator Homer S. Ferguson, the French and British ambassadors and Detroit native and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Bunche of the United Nations.

Dewey Jackson Short

Short was an unsuccessful candidate in 1932 for nomination to the United States Senate but was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress and the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1957).

Edmund W. Wells

He was appointed to the newly created 4th district by President Benjamin Harrison and his nomination was supported by U.S. Senator William B. Allison of Iowa, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, Arizona Territorial Governors Richard C. McCormick, Anson P. K. Safford, and Lewis Wolfley, Arizona Territorial Justices Charles G. W. French and William W. Porter, Arizona Territorial Secretary John J. Gosper, and Oakes Murphy.

Firearm Owners Protection Act

In the Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (February 1982), a bipartisan subcommittee (consisting of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats) of the United States Senate investigated the Second Amendment and reported its findings.

Frederick M. Bernthal

In 1978, Bernthal became a legislative assistant to Sen. Howard Baker (RTenn.).

George Bradley Kellogg

In March 1867 President Andrew Johnson nominated Kellogg to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, but he was not confirmed by the United States Senate.

Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park

The United States Senate appointed a committee to study the value of Low's proposal.

Industrial Commission

The Industrial Commission included McKinley's Ohio running mate, Commissioner Andrew L. Harris (a Governor of Ohio and Civil War General) who served as Chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee, and prominent Senators and Congressmen.

James Barker Edmonds

Although he remained the board's Republican commissioner until 1885, when former Louisiana Senator Joseph Rodman West resigned from the presidency of the D.C. Board of Commissioners in 1883, President Chester A. Arthur nominated Edmonds to serve as the board's Democratic commissioner and its chair.

James Kimbrough Jones

Jones was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1881-March 4, 1885); he was re-elected to the Forty-ninth but tendered his resignation on February 19, 1885, having been elected to the United States Senate that year.

Jan Backus

A moderate-to-liberal Democrat, Backus ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and beat Douglas M. Costle, Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President Jimmy Carter, for her party's nomination and came within 9 points of ousting incumbent U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords (R-VT).

Jeff Golden

Golden left the radio show in June 2007 to explore a candidacy for the United States Senate in the 2008 election.

John C. Sanborn

He was a candidate for United States Senate in 1950 and 1956 but was defeated both times in the Republican primary by Herman Welker.

Joseph Alioto

His second wife, Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, was a member of the Boston School committee and a candidate for a United States Senate in Massachusetts in 1978 primary.

Marion De Vries

On December 5, 1900, President McKinley nominated De Vries to the same seat, which had been vacated by Joseph Biddle Wilkinson, Jr. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 10, 1900.

Maurice J. Murphy, Jr.

(October 3, 1927 – October 27, 2002) was (for one month) the New Hampshire Attorney General and (for eleven months) an appointed United States Senator.

National Freedom Day

National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House & Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Obama: From Promise to Power

Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter, had covered Obama since the beginning of his campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

Peru–United States Trade Promotion Agreement

The agreement was signed on April 12, 2006; ratified by the Peruvian Congress on June 28, 2006; by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 2, 2007 and by the U.S. Senate on December 4, 2007.

Peter Hoagland

However, in 1988, when Hal Daub decided to run for the U.S. Senate, Hoagland ran for the open seat and was elected to serve in the 101st Congress.

Reunion Society of Vermont Officers

Almost all prominent Vermonters who had served in the Civil War were members of the Society, including U.S. Senator Redfield Proctor, Interstate Commerce Commission member Wheelock G. Veazey, and Governors Peter T. Washburn, Roswell Farnham, John L. Barstow, Samuel E. Pingree, Ebenezer J. Ormsbee, Urban A. Woodbury, Josiah Grout, and Charles J. Bell.

S.R. 819

The background check leads Mulder to Senator Richard Matheson (Raymond J. Barry), which results in a dead end.

Saint Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church

The congregation gained national attention in 2001 when it ordained Anita C. Hill (not to be confused with Anita Hill of the Clarence Thomas US Senate confirmation hearings).

Silver State Helicopters

On 23 May 2008 US Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) called for a Federal Trade Commission investigation of Silver State, indicating that he believes that it was a Ponzi scheme.

Small Smiles Dental Centers

Prepared by Staff of the Committee on Finance United States Senate Max Baucus, Chairman, and Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member.

Styles Bridges

Bridges ran for the position of governor of New Hampshire in 1934, and won, becoming the nation's youngest governor at the time, according to John Gunther's book, Inside U.S.A. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1936, and would serve until his death in 1961.

Ted Patrick

Patrick testified before an ad hoc Congressional committee organized in 1979 by Senator Bob Dole.

Thomas Jefferson Building

Senate, House and Supreme Court pages formerly attended school together in the Capitol Page School located on the attic level above the Great Hall.

Travis Childers

A special election in Mississippi's 1st congressional district was triggered when 12-year Republican incumbent Roger Wicker was appointed by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to the United States Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott.

United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense

Officials are appointed Deputy Undersecretary of Defense by the President and are confirmed by the Senate by majority vote.

United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce

The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the United States.