WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI Union News Service) — A determined effort to curb abuses of the Senate filibuster failed on Jan. 25 when the Senate’s two party leaders announced a “compromise” resolution that was enacted by lawmakers.
The agreement between Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does streamline some filibuster rules by limiting filibusters on what is known as the “motion to proceed.” Republicans have used such filibusters not to block a bill from a vote but simply to prevent debate on legislation from beginning. The new rules also limit debate on some judicial and federal nominations and make some other changes.
But the compromise resolution does nothing to change the use of the secret, silent filibuster, and it still will take 60 votes to invoke cloture (stop debate).
A record 391 filibusters were called in the 112th Congress as minority Republicans did everything possible to block popular progressive bills — even ones with majority support — from becoming law. Most of the legislation organized labor has fought for to restore collective bargaining rights and to create jobs — from the Employee Free Choice Act, to the Bring Jobs Home Act, the American Jobs Act, and many more — never received a Senate floor vote due to threat of a filibuster. Had any of those bills reached the floor they would have passed.
“For members of our union, and progressives throughout the nation, the failure to enact substantial reform of the senate rules almost guarantees that for two more years, there will not be effective debate, discussion or voting on even the critical issues that the Obama Administration has outlined,” said Larry Cohen, president of Communications Workers of America (CWA), which was part of a 51-group coalition that promoted filibuster reform.
The “Fix the Senate Now” coalition sent 2.5 million e-mails to lawmakers, delivered petitions with a million names, and added 100,000 phone calls, jamming the U.S. Capitol switchboard on numerous occasions.
Leading the charge for filibuster reform in the Senate were Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tom Udall of New Mexico, and Tom Harkin of Iowa.
Their reform package — which was supported by an overwhelming majority of voters, according to national polling — called for the elimination of the silent filibuster, instead requiring obstructing senators to stay on the floor and talk about why they are blocking legislation or a nominee. It also sought to require 41 senators to vote to continue debate rather than force 60 senators to vote to end debate.
With Democrats in control of the Senate in the 113th Congress, Merkley, Udall and Harkin introduced Senate Resolution 4 on opening day. [Under the U.S. Constitution, the Senate can change its operating rules on the first day of the legislative session with the support of a simple majority.] The resolution had 18 co-sponsors (no others from Oregon or Washington) and, according to Udall, enough votes to pass.
It was at that point Reid went to work on his “compromise” plan, going so far as to delay opening day by several weeks (using a parliamentary procedure calling for a recess at the end of the first day instead of adjournment) to allow time to work out the details with McConnell.
“It isn’t filibuster reform,” Shane Larson, a legislative aide to the CWA, told the Daily Beast. “And to call it filibuster reform is mislabeling it. It doesn’t change the filibuster at all. It is a procedural reform that speeds up the Senate, and that is all.”
While campaigning for reform, Merkley agreed that “without a talking filibuster, obstructionist senators will still be able to silently stall any piece of legislation they want without any accountability.”
A day after the Jan. 25 Senate vote, McConnell’s campaign launched a new fundraising pitch to conservatives touting the senator’s work in stopping the reform, The Hill newspaper reported.
“We beat the liberals,” the pitch read. “A group of the Senate’s most liberal senators, fueled by left-wing groups like MoveOn, have been pushing a dangerous scheme to change the rules of the United States Senate and fundamentally alter the checks and balances of our system,” read the email, written by campaign manager Jesse Benton.
He goes on to declare that McConnell, “stopped that scheme dead in its tracks.”
CWA’s Cohen said filibusters could sidetrack much of what labor wants from the new Congress.
Let’s be blunt…Reid sold out not only Merkley, Udall and Harking, but the country. He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, for what reason? I’ve been pretty neutral about Reid, until now, but I think he’s a sleazebag.