The Independent employs journalists from around the world to bring you truly independent journalism. To support us, consider a contribution.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has signaled that he is open to the Senate by eliminating the filibuster, making it possible for the majority party in that chamber to pass legislation without any bipartisan support.
Such a change of rules in the Senate, which promotes itself as the “world’s largest deliberative body” for its methodical approach to legislation and its rejection of the simple majority rule, would revolutionize the way laws are made. in the U.S.
“It will depend on how disturbing [Senate Republicans] to become “if he is president and they are a minority,” said Biden, the New York Times reported.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Share the full story, not just the headlines
Biden, who spent 35 years in the Senate representing Delaware before becoming vice president in 2009, has historically supported the filibuster as a way to achieve a bipartisan consensus on the legislation and to force cooperation between the two sides. He expressed optimism that he and Senate Republicans could still negotiate legislation in good faith without eliminating the filibuster.
“But I think you’re going to have to take a look at it,” he said.
Since 1975, Senate rules have required 60 senators to vote to “invoke closure,” that is, end the debate, on any piece of legislation and put it to a vote. That, in effect, has meant that a bill needs 60 senators to support it to pass, not the simple 51-vote majority outlined in the United States Constitution.
During the 1950s and 1960s, when finishing a filibuster required two-thirds of the chamber to vote to end the debate, Democratic senators from southern states used it to shut down various civil rights bills.
South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond leaked once for 24 hours and 18 minutes, the longest speech in Senate history, to kill the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
For years, Senate Democrats have been flirting with the filibuster’s purge of his intricate set of rules. In 2013, then-Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada convinced his party to remove the 60-vote threshold for judicial candidates, as opposition from the Republican minority was causing stagnation. The rule change allowed Democrats to confirm dozens of judicial appointments for President Barack Obama before Republicans regained the majority in 2015.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has since exploited the new confirmation process to go through 53 circuit judges and two Supreme Court justices nominated by President Donald Trump in just three and a half years, He has vociferously opposed calls for Democrats to end the 60-vote threshold for legislation.
“About legislation … the treasured tradition of the Senate is not efficiency but deliberation,” wrote the Kentucky Republican in an opinion piece for the Times last summer.
“One of the body’s central purposes is to get the new laws to gain broader support than is required for a majority in the House,” McConnell wrote, arguing that while the legislative filibuster does not appear in the text of the Constitution It is “fundamental to the order established by the Constitution” and is in line with what the founding fathers of the United States would have wanted.
“Echoes the explanation of James Madison in[[[[Federalist Document 62]that the Senate is designed not to seal bills in the House of Representatives, but to act as an “additional impediment” and a “complicated control” over “improper legislative acts.” It embodies Thomas Jefferson’s principle that “great innovations should not be imposed on slender majorities,” “McConnell wrote.
Biden’s new opening to end the legislative filibuster follows recent signals from several Democratic senators with strong bipartisan backgrounds who have said that the Republican opposition to a Biden presidency could compel them to rethink their support for the 60-vote threshold in the event that recover the Senate in November. .
Democrats must either get a four-seat pickup or a three-seat pickup plus the presidency to regain the majority.
“I will not stand idly by for four years and will see the Biden administration’s initiatives blocked at every turn,” said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons. Political in June, a marked change in the tone of his previous hermetic support to the filibuster.
Just three years ago, Mr. Coons and Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins wrote a letter urging Mr. McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to “preserve existing rules, practices, and traditions regarding members’ right to participate in an extensive debate on legislation before the United States Senate. “
Coons insisted this June that “he would go to great lengths to find a way forward that does not require removing what remains of structural barriers” if Biden wins the presidency.
“But if there is a Biden administration,” he said, “it will inherit a disaster, at home and abroad. It requires urgent and effective action.”
Mr. McConnell warned Democrats not to take such drastic action, reminding them how much it can hurt when the constantly changing political winds are not in their party’s favor.
“The important thing for our Democratic friends is to remember that you may not be in full control in the future, and every time you start playing by the Senate rules, I think you should always put yourself in the other teammate’s shoes and imagine what It could happen when the wind changes, “McConnell told reporters in June of recent Democratic comments about the filibuster’s end.
Even if Republicans retain a majority in the Senate and White House after the 2020 election, the rule will remain, McConnell promised, to the chagrin of Donald Trump.
“I always said no to the current president on that topic, and he tweeted about me multiple times, which I really appreciated,” McConnell said, joking about the president’s frustrated tweets earlier this year that criticized him for sticking with him. at 60. -vote rule.
.
