New Democrat Specter Loses Committee Seniority

WASHINGTON -- It appears the grass wasn't greener on the other side for Arlen Specter, whose switch to the Democratic Party has cost him his seniority on Senate committees.

The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday night that made Specter, who has represented Pennsylvania as a Republican since 1980, the most junior Democrat on the committees on which he serves. The resolution was passed after an agreement was reached between leadership in both parties and Specter, said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Manley said the seniority issue will be revisited after the 2010 elections.

Specter said Wednesday that only his seniority on subcommittees will be not be decided until after the 2010 election.

"Sen. Reid assured me that I would keep my committee assignments and that I would have the same seniority as if I had been elected as a Democrat in 1980," he said in a statement, adding that the caucus will vote on his seniority at the same time subcommittee chairmanships are confirmed after the 2010 election.

"I am confident my seniority will be maintained under the arrangement I worked out with Sen. Reid," he said.

A senior Democratic aide to the Appropriations Committee told FOX News that no one in the Senate Caucus assumed Specter would get to leap over some 54 Democrats to whom he would technically be senior.

And nothing is set in stone for the new Congress in January 2011, the aide added.

Specter rankled many Democrats with his stated opposition to their legislative priorities, including the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions -- President Obama's budget and his nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.

"But if he shows us he's with us on health care, on Supreme Court nominees, on EFCA, some other stuff, then maybe he gets a top or senior spot on some committees in 2011," the aide said.

Specter, 79, is seeking a sixth term next year in Pennsylvania. He has said he made the decision to end his four-decade relationship with the Republican Party because he was unlikely to win the nomination in a party that has grown increasingly conservative.

Specter serves on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Veterans Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Special Aging committees.

Specter, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, had been the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which is preparing for hearings on a Supreme Court nominee to replace the retiring Justice David Souter. When Republicans were in the majority, Specter chaired the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. He now will have to wait in line to question Obama's nominee.

Specter also was the top Republican on the subcommittee that funds the National Institutes of Health. The issue is a personal one for him because he has twice battled cancer.

A message left with Specter's office Wednesday was not immediately returned.

FOX News' Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.