Filibuster | GeorgMedia

March 20, 2021

Dianne Feinstein is ‘open’ to filibuster reform, citing GOP ‘abuse’ of the Senate procedure

Dianne Feinstein said that she would be “open” to possible changes with the legislative filibuster.
The position is stark turnaround for the longtime Senate institutionalist.
Feinstein said that she is concerned about Republican ‘abuse’ of the procedural tool.
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on Friday said that she would be “open” to possible changes with the legislative filibuster, a departure from the longtime senator’s institutionalist leanings.

Feinstein, who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, has been leery of dramatically altering the procedural tool, instead pushing for bipartisan consensus on issues like gun control and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

However, she said that if Senate Republicans “abuse the filibuster,” her position might shift.

“Ideally the Senate can reach bipartisan agreement on those issues, as well as on a voting rights bill,” she said in a statement. “But if that proves impossible and Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster by requiring cloture votes, I’m open to changing the way the Senate filibuster rules are used.”

Feinstein noted that President Joe Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for 36 years and has defended the Senate’s deliberative processes, including the filibuster, has himself come out in favor of a “talking filibuster.”

“I don’t think that you have to eliminate the filibuster; you have to do it, what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days,” Biden said in an ABC News interview earlier this week. “You had to stand up and command the floor, and you had to keep talking.”

Feinstein said that Biden’s idea was “worth discussing.”

She added: “I don’t want to turn away from Senate traditions, but I also don’t believe one party should be able to prevent votes on important bills by abusing the filibuster.”

While it isn’t Biden’s “preference” to end the filibuster, Senate Democrats are facing a raft of House-approved bills that include the sweeping voting reform bill known as H.R. 1 and the earliest elements of immigration reform, which are almost certain to be blocked by Senate Republicans.

The Senate is evenly split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, with Democrats holding a majority due to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.

However, the Senate has a 60-vote threshold to advance legislation, and with the Republican caucus dominated by conservative lawmakers and the party still smarting over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss, legislative buy-in from the GOP on comprehensive bills will be difficult to come by.

Feinstein’s statement comes after she recently expressed concern about Democrats nuking the filibuster and Republicans enacting far-reaching legislation on the opposite political spectrum if they were to regain a majority in the Senate.

“I would say I’m undecided,” Feinstein told The Hill, adding that a GOP Senate majority “is a factor, one of the reasons why I’m hesitant.”

While many Senate Democrats have mulled over eliminating the filibuster, Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have committed to keeping the procedure in place.

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March 18, 2021

Elizabeth Warren says the filibuster has ‘deep roots in racism’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Axios the much-scrutinized filibuster has “deep roots in racism.”
Some Democrats have been eyeing a reform to the filibuster, which could block Biden’s agenda.
Democrats’ other option, reconciliation, can only be used once per fiscal year, and they’ve already done that.
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Democrats have had unified control in Washington again since the January runoff elections, and just like the last time they held the White House, Senate, and House, under former President Barack Obama, Republican use of the filibuster could block their plans.

As Democrats increasingly say they’re open to reforming the filibuster to enact Biden’s agenda, some are questioning the procedure’s role in American history.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Axios that it “has deep roots in racism, and it should not be permitted to serve that function, or to create a veto for the minority. In a democracy, it’s majority rules.”

As she told Axios, the founders wanted the Senate and House to function as simple majorities; ending a Senate filibuster requires 60 votes, which is obviously greater than a simple majority.

“The filibuster is a later creation that was designed to give the South the ability to veto any effective civil rights legislation or anti lynching legislation,” Warren also told Axios.

Warren did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Warren isn’t the first Democrat to point to the filibuster’s role in the potential obstruction of the Civil Rights Act. In January, Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweeted:

“The longest filibuster ever held on the US Senate floor was 60 days in 1964 to prevent the passing of the Civil Rights Act. The filibuster is a tool of obstruction. It does not encourage debate, it does not allow for more voices to be heard, it is for suppression only. End it.”

In his eulogy for Rep. John Lewis, former President Barack Obama called to abolish the filibuster if the step would allow federal voting laws to be passed. In fact, the House just passed H.R. 1, a major voting rights bill, but the Senate version currently faces the threat of a filibuster.

More pivotal Democrats are weighing in on the filibuster

In an ABC News interview, President Joe Biden said he supports reforming the filibuster and bringing back the talking filibuster – where senators have to keep talking throughout their filibuster.

And a sweeping piece from The Washington Post looks into the current debate over the filibuster following Biden’s reform endorsement; there’s still hesitancy among some Democrats, while others think a simple majority should be required to end a filibuster. As Vox reported, pivotal Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has seemingly signaled some support for a talking filibuster, but doesn’t support lowering the vote threshold from 60.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that if Democrats were to alter the filibuster “they’ll unleash furies they can barely imagine.”

Insider’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig previously reported that the filibuster could prove to be a major barrier for the potential quick passage of Biden’s policies. He also reported that, per the strict rules surrounding it, Democrats could only use reconciliation twice this fiscal year. That comes as they eye a larger infrastructure package.

And the Senate used reconciliation to pass Biden’s American Rescue Plan after no Republicans voted in favor of it – meaning they essentially have just one more use remaining this fiscal year.

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March 17, 2021

House Republicans vote to approve restoring earmarks after decade-long ban

FILE PHOTO: House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks at his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Reuters

The House Republican caucus voted to approve the restoration of earmarks on Wednesday.
Democrats introduced reforms weeks ago as it sought to lift the GOP’s decade-old ban on earmarks.
Restoring the use of earmarks could make legislation easier to pass for both parties.
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Republicans instituted a ban on earmarks a decade ago, following a series of scandals related to abuses, but on Wednesday, House Republicans voted to support bringing earmarks back, potentially signaling a positive trajectory for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

The vote – conducted by secret ballot – follows House Democrats’ introduction of earmark reform guidelines at the end of February. Restoring earmarks could help ease legislation that doesn’t equally benefit all representatives.

“There’s a real concern about the administration directing where money goes,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters after the vote. “This doesn’t add one more dollar. I think members here know what’s most important about what’s going on in their district, not Biden.”

However, Senate Republicans still have not voted on restoring earmarks, and some of them have already voiced clear opposition to doing so.

On Saturday, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters that earmarks “are not the right way to go.”

“They have been associated with excess, and it would represent a turn to the worst,” he said.

The ban on earmarks – which Democrats have been calling “community-funding projects” – has a loaded history, and for a time, had bipartisan support.

In 2005, Alaska Rep. Don Young secured $233 million for a bridge that would connect two small cities, which became known as the “bridge to nowhere,” with critics saying the bridge would not significantly benefit Young’s community. The same year, former California Rep. Duke Cunningham landed himself eight years in prison for accepting $2.4 million in bribes in return for promising earmarks to defense contractors.

Former President Barack Obama in 2011 said that he would veto any bill containing earmarks, and until 2019, when then-House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey explored bringing earmarks back, Congress functioned without the community funding measure for a decade.

And on March 1, 10 Republican senators, led by Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Steve Daines of Montana, introduced a bill to permanently ban earmarks. Rubio said in a statement that earmarks led to “corruption and waste, and bought votes in Congress for unpopular legislation.”

-Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) March 2, 2021

Bringing back earmarks with Republican support could help Biden move forward with his infrastructure bill, which he and other Democrats have said they would like to be bipartisan. The president has not yet announced specific funding plans for infrastructure, and conservative and moderate lawmakers have already made it clear that they will not support another bill that uses reconciliation.

But if the GOP lends support to earmarks, they could have a greater say in the course the infrastructure bill might take and where the spending would go, which would be a relief to lawmakers like Rep. Sam Graves – ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – who said in a statement that he does not want “another Green New Deal disguising itself as a transportation bill.”

The passage of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill was his first major economic victory, and with the potential return of earmarks, along with possible reforms to the filibuster – which Biden said on an ABC News interview on Tuesday that he would support – implementing his economic agenda could occur with greater ease than expected.

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March 8, 2021

Biden remains opposed to eliminating the Senate filibuster, White House official says

Kate Bedingfield said that President Biden continues to oppose eliminating the Senate filibuster.
“His preference is not to end the filibuster,” she said on Sunday.
Bedingfield’s comments highlight a divide between the White House and progressive lawmakers.
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White House Communications director Kate Bedingfield on Sunday said that President Joe Biden continues to oppose eliminating the Senate filibuster.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bedingfield said that Biden, a 36-year veteran of the upper chamber, remains committed to forging bipartisan consensus with the GOP, even after a narrow 50-49 party-line vote to approve the latest COVID-19 relief package.

Bedingfield stated that Biden aims to keep the filibuster in place.

“It is still his position,” she said. “His preference is not to end the filibuster. He wants to work with Republicans, to work with independents. He believes that we are stronger when we build a broad coalition of support.”

Host Jake Tapper then asked Bedingfield how the administration would handle other pieces of legislation, including H.R.1, the massive election overhaul that passed in the House last week, along with the party’s longtime push to raise the minimum wage to $15.

The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill was passed through the budget reconciliation process, which was able to overcome the usual 60-vote threshold for legislation to proceed.

—CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 7, 2021

With the Senate evenly split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans and Vice President Kamala Harris having the ability to break ties, every Democratic member has to be on board to proceed with major pieces of legislation unless Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York can pick up support from the dwindling number of GOP moderates.

Still, Bedingfield argued that the relief package had bipartisan support in the public sphere and among elected officials.

“We also got it done with the support of 75 percent of the American people, including over 50 percent of Republicans,” she said. “We able to pass this legislation with massive bipartisan support across the country. You had something like 400 mayors, Republicans and Democrats, come out in support of the rescue plan.”

Bedingfield’s comments highlight the divide between the White House and progressive lawmakers who argue that a minimum wage hike and voting rights legislation will not survive the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

While progressives have pushed for Senate Democrats to ax the filibuster, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are strongly opposed to the idea.

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March 2, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin on ending the filibuster: ‘Jesus Christ, what don’t you understand about ‘never’?’

GettyImages 1231334604 — Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) arrives for the Senate Impeachment trials at the Capitol on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

US Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said Monday he will “never” change his mind on the filibuster.
The filibuster means that 60 votes are needed to pass most legislation in the Senate.
“Jesus Christ, what don’t you understand about ‘never’?” Manchin said.
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In a democracy, 50% plus one equals a governing majority. But in the US Senate, it takes 60 votes – or arcane maneuvers like budget “reconciliation” – to get much of anything done thanks to the filibuster, a Senate rule allowing a senator or senators from the minority party to hold up a bill, which has ossified into a permanent obstacle.

And that, Sen. Joe Manchin said on Monday, will “never” change so long as he’s around.

Democrats, in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, are eager to utilize their trifecta to deliver memorable reforms ahead of the next mid-term elections, which have historically seen the ruling party suffer setbacks.

Some of it can be done the 50 plus one way: the $1.9 trillion stimulus package on track to be passed this week includes $1,400 checks, a $400 per week boost in unemployment, and billions in aid for state and local governments. But a ruling by the Senate’s parliamentarian means it will not include a hike in the minimum wage – and Republican support for $15 an hour by 2025 does not appear to be in the offing.

But, as critics are quick to note, there is nothing in the US Constitution that demands that a Senate majority’s legislation be stymied in perpetuity by a filibuster (and the need to get 60 votes to end debate). Indeed, that simple Senate majority could elect to just do away with what is just a tradition, not a law.

Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, is one of two Democrats standing in the way of that (the other is Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema). And he’s not going to change his mind.

“Never!” he shouted at a journalist who asked if setbacks to the Democratic agenda might lead him to reconsider, per a pool report filed Monday night by Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson. “Jesus Christ, what don’t you understand about ‘never’?”

If Manchin’s party is unable to move forward with other big-ticket items, however, expect rank-and-file Democrats and members of the press to keep asking him the question.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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