Reid, Booker Bash Filibuster, Teeing Up Quick Reform in 2021
Washington — Late last week, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Cory Booker weighed in with new comments highlighting the growing momentum for the filibuster to be eliminated as a weapon that Mitch McConnell can use to block progress.
In an interview with Isaac Dovere with The Atlantic, Senator Booker said:
“I don’t think I can effectively make that argument of why we should preserve the filibuster at this moment in history, days before we see a decision being made that could so hurt voting rights and health care and LGBTQ rights and women’s access to reproductive care and abortion care. What I would rather do is just make a commitment that after this election’s over, should we be in the majority, I will hopefully be a part of leading an effort to find a way to right these wrongs and to balance the scales of justice, so to speak.”
To the AP’s Lisa Mascaro, Majority Leader Reid suggested that the filibuster should be swiftly eliminated if Republicans refuse to work with a new administration and a Democratic controlled Senate:
"We should give the Republicans a little bit of time, to see if they’re going to work with him,” he said. “But the time’s going to come when he’s going to have to move in and get rid of the filibuster.”
Asked how long Biden should wait it out before changing the rules, Reid said: “No more than three weeks.”
"Americans realize that the Senate will always be broken as long as Mitch McConnell can hold the country hostage on everything from COVID relief to health care to climate legislation,” said Fix Our Senate spokesperson Eli Zupnick. “The filibuster is an undemocratic, arcane rule that Republicans will use to create gridlock and dysfunction in the United States Senate next year unless something is done to address it. We’re glad to see former Majority Leader Reid and Senator Booker emphasize the urgency of eliminating the filibuster in a new Congress and help keep the momentum going to fix the Senate and deliver on the progress people across the country are demanding.”