“Sinema doesn’t support the voting rights legislation. The filibuster just lets her pretend she does.” Right-wing on Wednesday cast further doubt on Democrats’ nascent effort to pass voting rights legislation before the end of the year by reiterating her defense of the Senate’s legislative filibuster, an archaic rule that the GOP minority has used to […]
“Democrats in the Senate can have a functional democracy or the filibuster, but not both.” Voting rights advocates on Tuesday condemned Senate Republicans for blocking debate on the For the People Act, a sweeping pro-democracy bill, in a widely anticipated 50-50 vote that bolstered progressives’ arguments for combating GOP obstruction by killing the filibuster. The Democrat-led House passed a version of the popular bill […]
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia penned an op-ed Sunday vowing to oppose the For the People Act when it hits the Senate floor later this month and reiterating his objections to eliminating the filibuster, effectively guaranteeing that the ambitious voting rights bill will fail to pass. Published in West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette-Mail, Manchin’s op-ed comes as Republicans are pushing hundreds […]
“Unless we abolish the filibuster, there will be no progress on any agenda focused on justice, fairness, or basic survival,” said Sen. Ed Markey. Intensifying progressive calls to eliminate the legislative filibuster, Senate Republicans wielded the archaic procedural tool on Friday to torpedo a bill that sought to establish an independent commission to probe the […]
“Historian of the 20th century South here. I dispute Mitch’s statement. The filibuster has a ton of ‘racial history.’” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday made the sweeping claim that the legislative filibuster has “no racial history at all” and further insisted that historians don’t dispute his view—an assertion that historians immediately disputed. […]
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said this week that if Senate Democrats revive the talking filibuster in an effort to weaken the rule’s power as a tool of endless obstruction, he would speak until he “fell over” to try to block passage of a major expansion of voting rights as well as legislation aiming to protect LGBTQ people […]
“That’s what it was supposed to be.” President Joe Biden for the first time on Tuesday endorsed significantly overhauling the legislative filibuster by requiring senators who wish to obstruct to hold the floor and speak continuously, a major departure from the current no-show filibuster that allows lawmakers to tank bills with minimal effort. Previously averse to filibuster […]
“McConnell engaged in the most blatant, ridiculous act of obstructionism imaginable, and instead of telling him that if he kept it up, they’d take that power from him, key Dems reassured him that they’d never take that power from him.” After holding up a must-pass organizing resolution and delaying Democrats’ takeover of the Senate for […]
“McConnell is already abusing the filibuster to block the constitution of the new majority. Nuking the filibuster is the appropriate response.” In an early effort to keep the GOP in a position to cripple President Joe Biden’s agenda, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is threatening to block a must-pass organizing resolution that establishes the rules for the […]