To: Interested Parties
From: Fix Our Senate
Date: December 14, 2021
Re: Key Points for Filibuster Reform Homestretch
We’ve arrived at the key moment for Senate Democrats to finally address the outdated, abused filibuster before it’s too late to protect Americans’ voting rights and to safeguard our democracy. Here are key points to keep in mind:
What's at Stake: Protecting Americans’ Voting Rights and Safeguarding Our Democracy
- The threat to our democracy posed by President Trump and allies’ plans to potentially subvert the results of the next presidential election underscores the importance of legislation to safeguard our democracy now. However, Republicans are filibustering legislation to reform the Electoral Count Act.
- Meanwhile, Republican states’ partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts underscore the need to pass federal voting rights legislation. Yet despite the unanimous support of Democratic Senators, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act have been blocked by GOP filibusters again and again. In fact, Senate Republicans have even filibustered attempts to simply bring these critical democracy-protecting bills to the floor for debate.
- Key Point: Unless and until Democrats address the filibuster, critically-needed federal voting rights and democracy-protecting legislation will remain blocked.
Lessons from the Debt Ceiling Agreement
- What accounted for Senator McConnell’s role in agreeing to a temporary suspension of the legislative filibuster in order to raise the debt ceiling? He’s terrified that Democrats will reform the abused filibuster and eliminate his ability to obstruct the full range of other popular legislation, including voting and democracy protections. It’s the reason Senator McConnell folded on the debt ceiling in October and it’s why he helped broker an agreement again in December.
- Key Point: If the Senate can suspend the filibuster to pass a debt limit patch, it can and should do the same for voting rights and democracy while they’re under unprecedented attack – especially since Mitch McConnell has shown his motivations.
Democrats, Including Senators Manchin and Sinema, Understand that the Filibuster is Being Abused and Reform is Needed
- Throughout the year, moderate Democrats and former skeptics of filibuster reform have been vocal about the need to address the filibuster to pass voting rights and democracy legislation (see more here).
- Every Senate Democrat supports federal voting and democracy legislation and the caucus, including Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, understand that the filibuster is broken and have expressed varying degrees of openness to reforms that would “strengthen” and “restore” the Senate.
- Senator Manchin has long demonstrated openness to Senate filibuster reforms in the tradition of his predecessor WV Senator Robert Byrd.
- In 2011, Sen. Manchin voted to eliminate the filibuster on the motion to proceed and voted in favor of a talking filibuster
- More recently, in June 2021 comments reported by The Intercept, Sen. Manchin outlined support for the talking filibuster and shifting the burden of maintaining the filibuster to the 41 Senators obstructing
- Sen. Manchin called himself, “a person that's going to defend the legacy of Robert C. Byrd” earlier this year - and Sen. Byrd twice voted to change Senate filibuster rules -- in 1975 and in 1979.
- Just this week, Sen. Manchin responded to a question by NBC’s Julie Tsirkin about his openness to “a carve out to pass voting rights by simple majority” and he said, “We’re talking about that. Talking about everything, the rules. How do we make the senate work better? How can the senate function the way it was designed to function?”
- Senator Sinema has stated opposition to “eliminating” the filibuster but hasn’t shut down the possibility of reforms, instead called for a “debate” on the issue.
- Key Point: The Senate Democratic caucus is actively engaged in conversations about filibuster reforms in order to advance voting and democracy legislation
- Key Point: The prism to judge any reform idea is whether it will ultimately allow legislation to pass through the Senate with a simple majority after a reasonable amount of time? If it does, it’s likely a strong reform. If not, it’s likely just another tool Sen. McConnell can use to delay & obstruct progress.
The Senate Has Frequently Changed Its Rules Governing Filibusters
- Research by Molly Reynolds of Brookings Institution has found 161 instances when the Senate took action to prevent “some future piece of legislation from being filibustered on the floor of the Senate.”
- Since 1965, the Senate has voted to reverse a decision of the Presiding Officer 36 times - overturning the ruling of the chair is the key procedural step to change the Senate rules (see footnote 34 via Congressional Research Service publication here)
- Significant Senate rules/filibuster changes in recent decades include:
- 1975: cloture threshold lowered to 3/5
- 1979: post-cloture rules changed to eliminate “post-cloture filibustering”
- 1986: post-cloture time shortened to 30 hours
- 2001 and 2003: changes governing reconciliation rules to facilitate Republican deficit-raising tax cuts
- 2013: simple majority threshold for non-Supreme Court nominations
- 2017: simple majority threshold for Supreme Court nominations
- 2019: post-cloture time on district court judges shortened to 2 hours
