DANIEL BALDWIN: Have you ever wondered why it takes Congress so long to pass certain laws? If you have, you’re not alone, and there is a reason for it, one of which being this thing called the filibuster.
MARK ROM: The threat of the filibuster now essentially stops legislation in its tracks. It’s very difficult to move forward, because it’s hard to get Republicans and Democrats to work together.
BALDWIN: This is how it all works. When the Senate majority leader calls for the end of debate on a certain bill, he’s asking the senators for this thing called unanimous consent. Essentially, he wants to know if all 100 senators are okay with moving forward, and voting on the certain bill. If all 100 senators agree, they can move forward and vote and it only takes 51 votes to pass that bill into law. However, if a single senator objects, then the senate needs a supermajority, or 60 votes, just to end debate on that bill. If they can hit that threshold, then they can go ahead and vote to make the bill a law. But if they can’t, the bill dies. That’s the power of the filibuster.
ROM: The filibuster does not deny vote on the legislation. The filibuster prohibits it from even actually being considered on the floor of the Senate, so long as there are insufficient votes to move it forward.
BALDWIN: Pretend that your students about to take a test. Imagine that instead of having to do the test no matter what, you could simply tell the professor that you’re going to filibuster the exam. Professor, I object to this test. Good luck getting a supermajority of votes to overturn that objection.
But just doing that kills the exam. It’s that easy. In Washington, Senators do the same thing to kill a bill.
ROM: I mean it’s not done in an extraordinary way for particularly controversial issues, it’s done on almost everything.
BALDWIN: In 2020, the filibuster was used over 300 times. Now that the democrats have the majority in the Senate, they want to see if they can get rid of the filibuster to help them push forward some of President Biden’s legislation. However, they don’t even have the 51 votes necessary to do that because not all Democrats are on board. So what possible filibuster reform could we see in the future?
ROM: The return of the talking filibuster. That is, senators can only delay legislation, so long as they are willing to actually stand up and speak against it.
BALDWIN: Remember that test? Now instead of just saying you’re going to filibuster it, you would have to stand at the front of the room and talk about anything indefinitely. This test really reminds me of that time i visited the zoo. So long as you’re talking, the legislation is stalled. But the stalling stops once you leave the floor. Once you sit back down, you get that test, or in case the senate, the vote. Professor Rom says this would make it much harder for senators in the minority to stall legislation.
ROM: That would effectively reduce the filibuster to an almost trivial role because it only would serve to delay, and not to kill legislation.
BALDWIN: But for now, senators and keep filibustering, and legislation will keep getting killed. Dan Baldwin, NCC News.
A movement to do away with the modern filibuster appears to be waning. Despite some Democratic lawmakers pushing for the elimination of the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has no path to do so as Senate Democrats are split on what legislation they want to pursue. Additionally, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have stated they do not support getting rid of the filibuster, keeping Democrats below the necessary 51-vote margin. But this does not mean that Schumer will abandon all hope of either eliminating or reforming the modern filibuster.
The filibuster is a tactic typically used by members of the minority party in the Senate to stall legislation. Mark Rom, a government professor at Georgetown University, explained that the filibuster is a useful way to keep bills off the Senate floor.
“The filibuster does not deny vote on the legislation,” Rom said. “The filibuster prohibits it from even actually being considered on the floor of the Senate, so long as there are insufficient votes to move it forward.”
Before the Senate votes on a bill, Schumer would call for unanimous consent. Unanimous consent means that all 100 senators are willing to end debate on the bill and proceed to vote. If they all are, then it takes 51 votes, or a simple majority, to pass the bill into law. However, if one senator objects, the Senate needs a supermajority, or 60 votes, to move to a vote. This is called a cloture motion. If they fail to hit the 60-vote threshold, the bill dies. Rom said it is so easy to filibuster that the minority party tends to filibuster almost every piece of legislation.
“The minority party now raises the threat of a filibuster on almost every piece of legislation,” Rom said. “It’s not done in an extraordinary way for particularly controversial issues, it’s done on almost everything.”
Currently, Democrats and Republicans are split 50-50 in the Senate. If both sides vote along party lines, Vice President Kamala Harris serves as the tie-breaking vote, giving a slight edge to the Democrats. However, a filibuster would force Democrats to pick up at least 10 Republicans to hit the 60-vote threshold. Rom explained that politics have become too polarized for that to happen.
“The threat of a filibuster now essentially stops legislation in its tracks,” Rom said. “It’s very difficult to move forward, because it’s hard to get Republicans and Democrats to work together.”
Despite the impasse, President Joe Biden expressed support for a return of the talking filibuster. The talking filibuster, which was in place in the past, required senators to hold the floor of the Senate and speak to delay a vote on a bill. Once the senator sat, the filibuster ended. Rom claims this would make it harder to slow down legislation.
“Senators can only delay legislation, so long as they are willing to actually stand up and speak against it,” Rom said. “Were that to take place, that would effectively reduce the filibuster to an almost trivial role because it only would serve to delay, and not to kill, legislation.”
Despite Biden’s endorsement of the talking filibuster, the Democrats need Manchin and Sinema to vote along party lines if they hope to get any reform done in the near future.
