Committee Shifts Likely As GOP Takes Control of Senate

By Ben Wear

Washington

Republicans, who lost control of the Senate 17 months ago through one senator's decision, regained command Tuesday the old-fashioned way: at the polls.

With just one of the 34 races hanging in the balance the day after the Nov. 5 midterm elections—in Louisiana, where matters will be decided in a Dec. 7 runoff—Republicans secured 51 seats in the 100-member upper chamber of Congress. In the House, meanwhile, where the GOP held a 14-seat working majority entering the election, the postelection makeup appears likely to be 228 Republicans, 206 Democrats, and one Independent, who typically votes with Democrats.

The most immediate consequence for education will be in the Senate, where the GOP majority likely means that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., will hand over the gavel for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. And Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, despite comfortably winning what had earlier appeared to be a strong challenge from Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, will no longer run the subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee that...