Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Monday that he wants to finally take action on changing the fundamental rules of the Senate filibuster.
The Senate filibuster is a rule that requires 60/100 Senators to agree to vote on a bill before they actually vote on it. This allows the minority party to entirely block a bill from even being voted on, and requires the majority party to have a 'supermajority' (60 senators) agree in order to even start the vote on a bill. The filibuster has plenty of altered versions and it has been modified, and even repealed, a few times in history. But the filibuster as we know it today started in 1917, when Senators ratified Senate Rule 22, that required a two-thirds majority vote to end debate in the Senate and vote on a bill. This occurred when President Woodrow Wilson wanted to declare war on Germany amidst World War I.
In the past, Democrats have expressed multiple times about their stance against the filibuster, especially after re-gaining majority in the Senate. Republicans have blocked countless bills using the filibuster, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the For the People Act, stimulus bills, and even Donald Trump’s second impeachment in the Senate. Many Democrats have called the filibuster “a threat to American democracy”, because it doesn’t allow bills to be passed, even if the bill gets the majority vote. One of the concerns to some Democrats who support the filibuster is if the Republicans gain back majority in the Senate again, then the filibuster wouldn’t really work in their favor, and it would allow them to pass numerous bills.
Current Democrats that support the filibuster are Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Both members of the Senate have been controversial among the Democratic Party due to their role in blocking many bills that the Republican Party opposes, including the Build Back Better bill. Manchin had especially sparked disputes when he earlier said that he may vote for the Build Back Better bill with negotiations, but then announced in December in an interview that he has decided to not vote in favor of it.
Schumer reportedly said in a letter that the U.S. Senate 'must evolve' and plans to have the Senate vote on changing filibuster rules by Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 17th).
