Right now, the
senate’s filibuster rules aren’t even what are historically known as a
filibuster. In the past, a senator would
stand and talk for as long as he could to prevent a vote on a piece of
legislation from coming up. Other
senators that may have agreed with him would take some floor time and allow the
originator of the filibuster to rest.
These maneuvers around the rules were done to give a brief pause before voting
on legislation. This would allow each
side to get support for their point of view or change someone’s mind before
voting. Other times, it was intended to get
the attention of the public. But, after
a day or two, debate would be cut off and a vote taken. Currently, the House of Representative’s operates
under the rules that a simple majority vote can cut off debate and move to a
vote.
But, the
senate’s rules are much different. It
only takes a minority of senators to put a stop to any legislation. (Although, the house and the president have
found ways around the filibusters, it isn’t the way things are intended to
work.) If just 40 senators ban together
they can prevent debate on the legislation from being cut off and a keep the
full senate from voting. Then, nothing
happens. Senators don’t get up to talk
so senators are not under any pressure to get support or change someone’s
mind. They just stall the current
legislation and move on to other business.
That means
that a minority in the Senate can effectively kill legislation. And, if those 40 senators are from low
population states, a small minority of the population can keep an up or down
vote on any issue.
The
Constitution does say that the house and the senate are allowed to make its own
rules. So, at the start of each session,
every two years, each body votes on the rules for the upcoming session. This January when a new session of congress
comes to town, new rules will be considered.
This provides an opportunity to get the rules changed on
filibusters.
The authors of
the Constitution never intended the Senate to make rules that allow a minority
to rule. With few exceptions, those
times when a two thirds majority is required, voting is based on a simple
majority. Even then, it is expected that
a vote would be taken in a timely fashion.
For good or bad, depending on your point of view,
the winners of any election and the party with the majority of seats get to
pass the legislation they want. This is
the way a representative democracy works.
To allow a minority to prevent legislation to come up for a vote is to
ignore the will of the voters.
