It's Time To Change Senate Filibuster Rule

The right of the minority party in the United States to filibuster is an old and honored tradition, and until the last 20 years or so, it was one that was seldom used. For most of our nation's history the senators of both parties have believed it was a move that should only be rarely used, and then only in the most important cases. That is no longer the case.

Since losing the White House in 2008, the right-wing Republicans have turned the filibuster into a tool of obstruction -- to be used to block anything the president and the majority party tried to do, from bills to appointments (even those passed out of committee with Republican support). The idea was that if they could block everything the Democrats and the president tried to do, then they could accuse them of incompetence and voters would return the GOP to power.

By filibustering everything, the Republicans have made the Senate an institution that requires 60 votes to pass anything (instead of a simple majority as in the past). This means nothing can be accomplished, and that is the primary reason why the filibuster rules must be changed. It is simply wrong for a minority party to be able to gridlock the government.

When the last Congress was sworn in, the Democrats had the chance to change this (since Senate rules at the start of a session require only a majority vote and cannot be filibustered). And change was proposed by Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). They proposed that a series of cloture votes could be held, with the number of votes required to invoke cloture (the ending of a filibuster) going down each time until finally only a simple majority would be needed.

But they could not persuade enough of their Democratic colleagues to go along with the proposal, especially Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). Reid  made a "deal" with the Minority Leader that the Republicans would stop abusing the filibuster rule if it was kept in place without changes. So the Democrats voted to keep it as it was -- and it took the Republicans about a nanosecond to break their promise. And the Republicans continue to misuse and abuse the filibuster to obstruct everything.

It looks like the Majority Leader has finally realized that he was conned by the Republicans, and is now ready to change the rules. After another cloture vote (which failed to get the needed 60 votes) the other day, he said:

“If there were ever a time when Tom Udall and Jeff Merkley were prophetic, it’s tonight. These two young, fine senators said it was time to change the rules of the Senate, and we didn’t. They were right. The rest of us were wrong — or most of us, anyway. What a shame.”

“If there were anything that ever needed changing in this body, it’s the filibuster rules, because it’s been abused, abused, abused.”


Majority Leader Reid is right. The Republican abuse of the filibuster rule is way out of hand, and the point has been reached where it must be changed. Hopefully, the Democrats can return a majority to the Senate after this next election -- and then change Senate rules to take care of this problem. There is simply too much that needs to be done to allow the Republicans to continue their obstructionism.