Filibuster reform: Democrats still face a difficult path to rooting out filibuster despite Manchin’s openness to reforms

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To change the rules of filibuster, Democrats will need full unity among their 50 members behind a single plan, but there is still a lot of disagreement on some major issues: whether to keep the 60 vote requirement needed to break a filibuster.

Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who first opened the door to weakening the filibuster on Sunday, still supports keeping the 60-vote requirement, people told CNN familiar with his thinking, even though a growing number of his colleagues are. calling for changes to the rules so that a simple majority of 51 senators can vote to move the legislation forward.

The debate has profound implications not only for the traditions of the body, but also for the direction of President Joe Biden’s agenda and for future presidents given that the Senate – unlike the House – has long been the a place where the minority can thwart the will of the majority.

But critics say filibuster has been increasingly abused by the minority over the past generation and is in dire need of reform. Manchin, who has long vowed to protect filibuster, seemed open to a major change in the rules: forcing members to go to the ground and argue if they want to try and talk about a bill to the death, which looks a lot like the popular scenes from the classic movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Manchin’s comments have now prompted Senate Democrats to resume talks to at least change the rules to force senators to go to the ground and mount a “talking filibuster,” a move they hope would at least discourage the tactical since now a simple threat of systematic obstruction is enough to force a set of time-consuming procedural steps before being forced to cross a threshold of 60 votes.

“I think a common refrain you’ve heard from so many members is, ‘If there is to be a filibuster, he has to actually be a filibuster that those who want to obstruct should actually plead their case. before the American people “”. Oregon Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley and leading advocate for filibustering, said in an interview Monday. “They should have to put in the time and energy to introduce themselves and keep their word.”

Merkley, who wants to completely eliminate filibuster so that a simple majority of 51 senators is enough to move legislation forward, has spent years pressuring his colleagues to adopt changes in tactics. Now, he says, there has been a “huge shift” within his caucus in favor of rewriting the filibuster rules.

According to one of Merkley’s proposals, if at least 41 senators vote to block the end of debate on a bill or candidate, they would enter a period of extended debate where one or more senators could prevent a final vote for that long. that they could physically continue to debate the issue. problem on the floor.

But as soon as they had no one on the floor, the president declared the extension of the debate time over and the majority leader could move on to a final vote where a simple majority vote would be required for the adoption of the vote. either candidate. or an invoice. Yet changing the 51-vote rules envisioned in the proposal is something Manchin is very unlikely to support.

Discussions within the Senate Democratic caucus are expected to accelerate in the coming days to see if they can unify behind a single plan, senators and aides said on Monday. In order to change the rules, Democrats must employ a rarely used tactic called the “nuclear option” – a process in which a majority party can change the rules without the consent of the minority.

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In 2013, with Barack Obama as president, Harry Reid, then Senate Majority Leader, infuriated Republicans when he invoked the so-called nuclear option to allow presidential candidates other than those in the Supreme Court, to be advanced by a simple majority of 51 senators. Later in 2017, then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked the nuclear option to allow Supreme Court candidates to advance by simple majority, a move that led to the possible confirmation of President Donald Trump’s choices of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court.

And now, as Democrats seek to push forward an ambitious agenda that has little GOP backing, calls are mounting from the left to resume this route to clear the filibuster to allow legislation to deal with it. also gun control, immigration and climate change. as voting rights and LGBTQ.

“If we continue to see the obstruction of our fellow Republicans as we have seen through this Covid relief package, I think patience will wear off, even for moderate Democrats,” the California senator said. Alex Padilla, a freshman named to fill the seat. released by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democrats were only able to advance Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion relief plan because they used a budget process known as “reconciliation” that cannot be obstructed in the Senate, which means that A simple majority is all that is needed to pass the bill under this particular procedure. It was adopted on Saturday by a 50-49 vote.

But they will not be able to use the reconciliation process on other policy measures that fall outside the parameters of the Senate budget rules, including the federal minimum wage of $ 15 an hour which has been deemed to be out of range. the procedure. .

Biden skeptical of filibuster changes

Biden, whose legislative platform has so far garnered no support from Republican lawmakers, continues to resist Senate rule changes that would lessen the filibuster’s power and its 60-vote requirement.

It’s a position born from his 36 years in the Senate, a scrupulous respect for its traditions and practices and a realization that Democrats will not always be in the majority, say people close to Biden. And while that is not a steadfast point of view – the White House said on Monday it was simply its “preference” not to change the rules – it is the one that puts it at odds with members of its own. left.

The immediate problem is a voting rights bill that Senate Republicans widely oppose. HR 1, which passed the Democratic-led House last week, would expand access to the vote and improve accountability and transparency in Washington, according to its sponsors. The bill lacks 60 votes in the Senate.
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“The vote for me should be unobstructed, just as we made the budget move forward as part of reconciliation, civil rights laws and voting rights laws should also be the subject of. reconciliation efforts, ”Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat close to Biden, said on CNN Sunday.

Still, pressed to find out if Biden could support this type of exemption from the filibuster rules, the White House would not budge.

“It’s not his preference,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “He believes that with an issue as important as the right to vote, there should be a way forward for working with Democrats and Republicans to get there, so nothing has changed about his filibuster policy. . ”

Democrats say there is still a possibility of changing the views of Biden and other skeptics of their party.

“I feel like things change in no time here,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN on Monday. “And when we have several defeats of things President Biden has promised, and we have to respect HR 1’s voting rights, I think that will move him. And we keep the pressure on.”

Yet supporters of the filibuster modification still have a Manchin-sized roadblock in front of them. And they will have to convince others who have been skeptical of the changes – including Sen. Angus King of Maine and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – to join them as well.

Democrats pushing rule changes say they shouldn’t worry about the long-term ramifications.

Merkley said Monday “I don’t care” that a rule change could backfire if Democrats find themselves in the minority within the next two or four years.

“Minority Democrats would have the same ability to hold things up if we’re prepared to stand up and make our arguments in front of the public that Republicans would have under the filibuster,” Merkley said. “If your position is right, if your cause is right, well, you will do very well in the next election if you have taken a position.”

CNN’s Olanma Mang contributed to this report.

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