Democrats May Nudge Byrd Off Post in Committee
Senate Democrats are coming around to the view that Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator in American history, needs to be replaced as chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the next Congress, because he is not up to the immense challenges he would face in that job, Democratic aides said Tuesday.
Democratic senators hope Mr. Byrd will step aside voluntarily, the aides said. But, they added, a growing number of Democratic senators would, reluctantly and sorrowfully, try to ease him out as chairman if he did not do so.
Mr. Byrd, 90, entered the House of Representatives in 1953 and has been a senator since 1959. In a statement Tuesday, he indicated that he would try to hold on to his leadership of the committee, which controls about one-third of all federal spending.
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Democratic senators hope Mr. Byrd will step aside voluntarily, the aides said. But, they added, a growing number of Democratic senators would, reluctantly and sorrowfully, try to ease him out as chairman if he did not do so.
Mr. Byrd, 90, entered the House of Representatives in 1953 and has been a senator since 1959. In a statement Tuesday, he indicated that he would try to hold on to his leadership of the committee, which controls about one-third of all federal spending.