On Friday, an NBC News story highlighted the effort by a progressive coalition led by Fix Our Senate to abolish the filibuster to pave the way for a Biden agenda. Highlights from Sahil Kapur’s story are below, including a strong message from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about the need to eliminate the filibuster and quotes from Sen. Jeff Merkley that highlight the need to break through the “McConnell veto.” . Fix Our Senate has been working for months to highlight how Sen. Mitch McConnell has broken the Senate and this story lays out some of the work we’re doing now to push for it to be fixed:
- “Veteran party operatives, activist groups and supportive senators are coordinating message and strategy to dial up the pressure to quickly end the 60-vote threshold early next year, fearing that preservation of the rule will enable Republicans to kill Joe Biden’s legislative agenda in its cradle.”
- "’If President Biden wants to get things done, he can't play around with the filibuster,’ Reid told NBC News, arguing that Americans will no longer accept a supermajority Senate threshold for action. ‘So I think that should be the first item of business with a Senate majority which is Democratic — to get rid of the filibuster.’”
- “‘Our goal is to lift the filibuster higher on progressives’ agendas in advance of November and help them make it clear to a future President Biden and Senate leadership that they expect and demand speedy Senate rules reform in 2021 and will not accept more gridlock, delays and excuses,” Zupnick said. “We are going to be very focused on the need for speedy action.’”
- “Inside the Senate, their biggest ally is Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who has been meeting with colleagues to make his case. He said voters don’t want a repeat of the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, where a series of Democratic priorities were scaled back or thwarted by then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in what he calls the ‘McConnell veto.’”
Fix Our Senate is going to continue building momentum to eliminate the filibuster and make sure that the next Congress can deliver on the promises being made to the American people, and that McConnell can’t continue to obstruct and prevent progress. As Sen. Reid said, the filibuster must not stand in the way of the next Congress working to make real change for the American people.
