End filibusters in the senate

Carl Levin, the senior United States Senator from Michigan, is calling for changes in the United States Senate filibuster rules.  The change is so overdue. Let’s hope he finds enough support come January to change the rules.  But, in an irony of circumstances, a minority can prevent it from happening

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.

Filibusters should end

The filibuster may come back into the news in the next couple of months. The senate is considering changing the rules of the senate for the next term, which would start in January after the upcoming election. The current filibuster rules were created to block legislation and appointments with no other reasonable purpose. Congress should abolish it.


The modern filibuster’s creation came out of the 80’s when republicans wanted to block some judicial nominations by then President Clinton. With the support of what could be called the “Super Majority Minority”, just 40 senators, legislation and appointments can be block. This means that a minority of senators can keep action from being taken that 59 senators, a near super majority, deem important.

Filibusters in a simple form have been with human organizations since the beginning of time. Up until the 80’s, it meant that someone who was granted the right to speak could do so until they couldn’t speak anymore. In most cases it stopped the organization from moving forward on all of its business until the filibuster was over. Since this usually lasted from a few hours to a day at most, it provided time for the opposition to gather their supporters or time for information about the decision to reach the constituents. The plan for the filibusters was that the opposition could change the outcome of a vote if they just had a little more time.

Pressure not only came from the both sides of the issue but also because no other business could get done. Everything stopped and people worked at finding a solution.

But, the modern filibuster in the U. S. Senate is different. Now just 40 people can oppose cutting off debate and no vote will be taken. As long as the votes aren’t there to cut off debate, the issues goes nowhere. No deadline for a vote. No debate of the issues. And 40 people can stop the will of the senate from being expressed. Other business that the senate needs to get done just continues.

It is completely legal for 40 senators to control the senate business in a United States. The Constitution says that the senate and the house of representatives can set their own rules with only a couple of exceptions. If it was the will of the senate, they could make it so that just 5 senators in support of legislation could pass it into law.

The senate should change the rules on a filibuster that it takes no more votes to stop debate and vote on an issue than it takes to pass. If it takes a simple majority to pass legislation, it should only take a simple majority to end debate.

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