Mr. Paterson has been working to keep Democratic senators loyal at a time when the Republican majority has been wooing them with promises that they will have more clout siding with the Senate's dominant party.
"If you tried to get a vote on it right now, the Senate wouldn't let you do it, because they are not going to take three or four very important senators -- at a time when they are... running for office, you know, more Republicans than Democrats -- and put them at risk," Donohue said.
There are at most 100 senators at any time, with occasional need to replace a senator in mid session, which happened once during the voting portion of this session.
In his role as president of the Senate, Biden swears in every newly elected and reelected senator four at a time in the modern chamber.
Any of those Senators at any time could have insisted, for example, that Trump disclose his tax records.
It's important, he said, to "make sure Illinois has two senators at all times".
Moreover, he said, Minnesota has been at a disadvantage for several months by having only one of its two senators in place at a time of "some national crisis".
But he (and the two senators he had at a time) provided the deciding votes to pass a bill that dramatically increased the powers of the government to implement its offshore processing policy while avoiding the reach of the UN convention on refugees.
The squabble has left Minnesota with only one senator in Washington at a time when a new Democratic president is set to push ahead with an agenda that includes massive federal aid for beleaguered states, including Minnesota.
The Republican national chairman, Marc Racicot, noted that four senators were in New York at a time the Senate has not passed a budget.
