Democrats are debating filibuster changes – what do you think they should do?
Changing or eliminating the rule would allow the Senate to pass more bills with a simple majority.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Joe Biden on the verge of his first big legislative victory, a key moderate Democrat says he’s open to changing Senate rules that could allow for more party-line votes to push through other parts of the White House’s agenda, such as voting rights.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin stressed Sunday that he wants to keep the procedural hurdle known as the filibuster, saying major legislation should always have significant input from the minority party. But he noted there are other ways to change the rules that now effectively require 60 votes for most legislation. One example: the “talking filibuster,” which requires senators to slow a bill by holding the floor, but then grants an “up or down” simple majority vote if they give up.
“The filibuster should be painful, it really should be painful and we’ve made it more comfortable over the years,” Manchin said. “Maybe it has to be more painful.”
“If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk,” Manchin added. “I’m willing to look at any way we can, but I’m not willing to take away the involvement of the minority.”
The Senate is divided 50-50, but Democrats control the chamber because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tie-breaking vote. With 60 votes effectively needed on most legislation, Democrats must win the support of at least some Republicans to pass Biden’s agenda.
In his previous stint in the executive branch, Biden showed flexibility on the issue. He supported the Obama administration’s push to end the filibuster on most judicial nominations, lobbying his former colleagues to make the change, said Ed Pagano, who was a legislative affairs aide in the White House at the time.
But Biden — who is under pressure from some liberal lawmakers to back eliminating the filibuster rule altogether — is also on the record defending Senate traditions like the parliamentarian’s rulings, saying in a 2005 floor speech that heeding them had “been the practice for 218 years.”
Biden warned at the time that killing the filibuster would be “a fundamental power grab by the majority party.”
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Information from the Washington Post was also used.
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