Senate seniority

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Senior Senator and Junior Senator are terms commonly used in the media to describe United States Senators. Each state sends two senators to serve in the Senate; the longer (continuously) serving of the two is by convention referred to as the "senior" senator, and the other is referred to as the "junior" senator. If both are elected at the same time (e.g., one in a regular election and the other simultaneously to fill the seat of a senator who resigned), the one who is sworn in first is senior.

There is no mandated difference in rights or power, although Senate rules give more power to senators with more seniority. Generally, senior senators will have more power, though being a member of the majority party is more advantageous than being senior. In addition, by custom the senior senator from the president's party controls federal patronage appointments in his/her state. Thus being the junior senator is disadvantageous if the senior one is from the same party.

Some of the perquisites of seniority offered by the U.S. Senate:

Senators are given preferential treatment for committee assignments based on seniority. Although the committee chairmanship is an elected position, it is traditionally given to the most senior senator of the majority party serving on the committee. Ranking member (called Vice-Chairman in some select committees) of a committee is the most senior member of the minority party thereon.
Greater seniority enables a senator to choose a desk closer to the front of the Senate Chamber.

Traditionally, seniority brings with it greater clout. As a result of this, it is fairly difficult for the more junior members of both houses of Congress to have a significant impact on policy. Notable exceptions to this include Lyndon B. Johnson (elected in 1948), who was junior to Thomas T. Connally (elected in 1928); Joseph McCarthy (elected to Senate in 1946), who was junior to Alexander Wiley (elected to Senate in 1938); and Trent Lott (elected 1988), who was junior to Thad Cochran (elected 1978).