FILIBUSTER

U.S. Supreme Court abortion move sparks calls for ending Senate's filibuster

Richard Cowan / Reuters — Wed, 04 May 2022 13:31:00 GMT

WASHINGTON — A draft opinion suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court was ready to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing the right to abortion sparked a fresh call among progressive Democrats to scrap the Senate's filibuster rule.

"Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes," Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said on Twitter.

Since the start of President Joe Biden's administration, Democrats have wrestled with repealing or modifying the long-held filibuster rule requiring at least 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to advance most legislation, as a way to get around their razor-thin majorities.

The move so far has been a political nonstarter and could backfire on Democrats as Republicans have a shot at winning majority control of the Senate in the Nov. 8 elections. Repealing the filibuster now could give Republicans a sure path to imposing new limits on abortion the next they control Congress and the White House.

Sanders was not alone in calling for an end to the filibuster, which Republicans have used to block major Biden initiatives, including his push for unprecedented government investments to rein-in climate change and provide new healthcare benefits to young families and the elderly.

"It’s high time we do it," chimed in Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.

Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and pro-choice politicians and organizations such as NARAL, face tough odds in loosening the grip of the Senate filibuster.

Last January, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema joined forces with all 50 Republican senators against setting aside the filibuster so that voting rights reforms could pass the Senate.

On Tuesday, Manchin, who has opposed abortion rights, showed no sign of easing his opposition to a rules change to overcome the Supreme Court decision and legalize abortion through legislation.

"The filibuster is the only protection we have in a democracy" against a majority of senators steamrolling the minority, Manchin told reporters.

Last year, Sinema, a co-sponsor of legislation protecting abortion services, argued in a Washington Post opinion piece that filibusters foster "moderation." Neither she nor an aide were immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

But without Manchin and Sinema, Democrats see no pathway in the current Senate toward altering the filibuster and passing abortion legislation.

No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin, who is in charge of counting votes on controversial matters, said as much on Tuesday.

Asked by Reuters whether he saw any avenue for another attempt at changing the filibuster rule, Durbin said, "After I speak to two senators I'll tell you." He did not mention Manchin and Sinema by name.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Makini Brice, Moira Warburton, Jeff Mason and Gabriella Borter; editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis.)

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Biden to make personal plea to Democrats to unify and pass voting rights

Jarrett Renshaw / Reuters — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 12:51:56 GMT

U.S. President Joe Biden will seek to rally Senate Democrats in a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to unite and alter the chamber's rules to pass voting-rights legislation.

Biden and most fellow Democrats have ratcheted up their campaign to pass voting-rights legislation after spending much of his first year in office debating spending bills focused on COVID-19 relief, infrastructure and social safety net programs.

Democrats see the voting rights bills as a last chance to counter new voting restrictions in Republican-controlled states ahead of the Nov. 8 congressional elections, when they run the risk of losing their narrow majorities in at least one chamber.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama wrote in a USA Today op-ed on Thursday that the Senate's "filibuster" rule, which requires 60 of the 100 senators to agree on most legislation, has become a common tool for the chamber's minority to block important progress on issues supported by the majority of voters.

"We can’t allow it to be used to block efforts to protect our democracy. That’s why I fully support President Joe Biden’s call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote," Obama wrote.

Democrats, who hold just 50 seats, remain divided on how to get around the rule that has hampered them.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday outlined a strategy to ensure a Senate floor debate on voting rights, after three separate attempts last year were stymied by Republicans.

Under the plan, the House of Representatives will soon repackage two elections-related bills into one and pass it. It would then go to the Senate under a special procedure preventing Republicans from blocking debate.

If Republicans remain opposed, that bill would not pass the Senate unless all Democrats agree to change the filibuster, he said. At least two Democrats are opposed to a rule change.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday reiterated that Republicans oppose voting-rights legislation and changes to the filibuster.

McConnell also criticized Biden for a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday pushing for an overhaul of the filibuster to pass voting rights bills, calling it "incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office."

Republican lawmakers in 19 states have passed dozens of laws making it harder to vote.

The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act together would make Election Day a holiday, expand access to mail-in voting and strengthen U.S. Justice Department oversight of local election jurisdictions with a history of discrimination.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool.)

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U.S. Senate Democrats mull ending filibuster to pass voting rights reform

Andy Sullivan / Reuters — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 13:06:38 GMT

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 — Democrats' razor-thin majority in the U.S. Senate has led to them making new calls to change the chamber's longstanding "filibuster" supermajority rule to allow them to pass a voting rights bill that President Joe Biden will urge action on Tuesday.

Critics say the "filibuster," which requires 60 of the 100 senators to agree on most legislation, is an anti-democratic hurdle that prevents Washington from addressing pressing problems.

Supporters say it forces lawmakers to seek consensus, serves as important check on the party in power and ensures that major laws that affect American life don't change radically with every election.

Once a rarity, the filibuster is now routinely invoked. In recent months, Republicans have used it to block voting-rights bills and bring the United States perilously close to a crippling debt default.

Democrats could use their razor-thin Senate majority to eliminate the filibuster altogether. But centrist Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema oppose this move, saying that it will shatter the few bipartisan bonds that remain and give Republicans free rein if they take a majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has warned that his party would use other tactics to bring the chamber to a halt if the filibuster is eliminated.

WHAT IS THE FILIBUSTER?

Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate was set up to allow for unlimited debate. In the 19th century, lawmakers developed the filibuster — a word derived from Dutch and Spanish terms for Caribbean pirates — as a way to talk a bill to death.

Then-Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond set the record in 1957, when spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes to block a major civil rights bill. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy spoke for nearly 15 hours in 2016 to press for gun-control legislation and Republican Senator Ted Cruz spoke for more than 21 hours in 2013 to protest President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. None of those efforts were successful.

Senators agreed in 1917 that a vote by a two-thirds majority could end debate on a given bill. That majority was reduced in 1975 to three-fifths of the Senate, currently 60 senators.

Under current rules, senators don't need to talk to gum up the works — they merely need to register their objection to initiate a filibuster.

Over the past 50 years, the number of filibusters has skyrocketed as Democrats and Republicans have become more politically polarized. From 1969 to 1970 there were six votes to overcome a filibuster, the nearest reliable proxy. There were 298 such votes in the 2019-2020 legislative session.

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM FOR DEMOCRATS?

Democrats control 50 seats in the Senate, which allows them to eke together a majority with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking 51st vote when needed. They can't overcome filibusters unless at least 10 Republicans vote with them.

Democrats were able to bypass the filibuster to pass Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus plan using a special process known as "reconciliation" that only requires a simple majority for certain budget bills. But that process is subject to complex limitations and cannot be used regularly.

Republicans have blocked many other Democratic priorities, though 19 of them did vote for a $1 trillion package to revamp the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

CAN THE FILIBUSTER BE CHANGED?

There have already been changes.

In 2013, Democrats removed the 60-vote threshold for voting on most nominees for administration jobs, apart from the Supreme Court, allowing them to advance on a simple majority vote.

In 2017, Republicans did the same thing for Supreme Court nominees. Both the 2013 and 2017 Senate rule changes were made by simple majority votes.

Some Democrats have called for eliminating the filibuster entirely, but they lack the 50 votes needed to take that step.

Democrats plan to vote sometime over the next week to scale back the filibuster so it would not apply to voting-related legislation. But it's not clear whether they have the votes for this either; Manchin said last week that he would prefer to get some Republican buy-in for that change.

On Sunday he said he might support making the tactic more "painful" by requiring senators to keep talking on the Senate floor.

Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate, long supported the filibuster but has grown more open to changing it as Republicans have blocked several of his major initiatives over the past year.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell.)

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