Harris Is Still Right About the Filibuster
If Democrats are able to hold their slim majority in the US Senate, keep the White House, and gain enough seats in the House in November, the prospect of some much needed reform finally becomes real.
In an interview that aired on Tuesday morning, Vice President and Democratic Nominee for President Kamala Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio that she wants to protect abortion rights across the nation by ending the controversial filibuster rule in the United States Senate. While some Democrats are extremely hesitant to abolish a long established tradition and possibly create a new process that could be used to help conservatives move on their own agendas, Harris continues to urge reform as a way to protect Civil Liberties.
“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said, “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.” In addition to ending the filibuster to protect reproductive and voting rights, Harris has also said she would support ending the filibuster to pass environmental legislation known as the Green New Deal.
“Sign me up for an honest-to-goodness conversation about reforming the filibuster beyond one or two [issues], voting rights and reproductive rights,” says Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). “I think we’ve allowed the filibuster rule to eat the business of the Senate,” says Durbin. “We’ve reached the point now where we’re doing nothing. We’re reporting every three months that we didn’t shut down the government, a big source of pride.” Durbin concluded: “If we’re going to be a functioning legislature, we’ve got to change some fundamentals.”
The two biggest Democratic blockades for eradicating the filibuster previously have been Senators Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Joe Manchin (WV), who both moved their allegiance to the Independent Party after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tried to carve out an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation in January 2022. Now that Sinema not running for re-election and the seat will hopefully go to an actual Democrat, this next election might provide enough seats to have a more serious conversation about the process.
Below is an article, that was published during the heat of the filibuster battle in 2021, which explains the rule and reasons behind the move to reform. Some of the players will have thankfully changed, but the need to advance essential protections for Civil Rights has remained just as pressing and remain the crux of Kamala Harris’ agenda.
We Must End the Filibuster
With less than 18 months to go before Midterms and a liberal agenda on the line, it's apparent that Democrats must act now to abolish an outdated legislative tool that could lose them the majority.
Originally published June 03, 2021
At an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre on Tuesday, President Biden made a point to highlight all of the hurdles his agenda faces in Congress and made a notable departure from expressing hesitancy over eliminating the filibuster. While Biden did not call out Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema by name for their refusal to help their own party, he made it clear that there is an urgent need for a change in Washington.
President Biden told the crowd: “I hear all the folks on TV saying, ‘Why doesn’t Biden get this done?’ Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends,” he said. “But we’re not giving up.” (You can watch Biden’s full speech in the video below.)
Now, more than 100 advocacy groups are urging Senate Democrats in a formal letter to abolish the 60-vote threshold, citing the Republican blockade of a commission to investigate the Capitol riot as a rallying cry. Prominent organizations Fix Our Senate, March For Our Lives, Our Revolution, and the Sierra Club are just some of the heavy-hitters that have signed on to push for immediate action in the filibuster battle.
"In the face of Republicans' inability and unwillingness to defend our democracy, it is clearer than ever that the filibuster needs to be eliminated," reads the letter. Notably, this latest call to immediate action is dated on Thursday and directly follows Biden’s recent statements.
While Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has made it clear over the past several months that he has no intention of budging on his ongoing protective position over the legislative filibuster, recent attempts to pressure Junior Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) appear to be failing. After missing a pivotal vote last week to establish a Jan. 6th investigatory commission, Sinema has been on a two-day border visit with John Cornyn parroting Republican talking points about the “border crisis.”
Speaking to reporters alongside Cornyn in Arizona, Sinema said that she hadn't shifted her position on opposing changes to the Senate's rules, telling reporters that the filibuster "protects the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years."
Sinema shifted the focus to a need to change the behavior of Republicans rather than ending the filibuster. In the wake of the actions of the GOP over the last decade, this suggestion is almost comical. Democrats have been able to delay a filibuster stalemate thanks to a favorable ruling by the Senate Parliamentarian, but this workaround will only apply to spending legislation issues.
The need to apply pressure on Sinema is critical for Democrats at this point if there is any chance of advancing a liberal agenda that includes voting rights protections, Civil Liberties, Equal Pay, and most importantly, Democratic control of Congress in the face of impending Midterm Elections.
Last Friday, for the first time this congressional session, Republicans used the filibuster on a piece of legislation to kill a proposal to form a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack upon the very institution in which they sit. If Republicans are willing to use the filibuster to shamelessly block an uncontroversial, bipartisan proposal, it’s now painfully evident they will use it to stop any aspect of President Biden’s agenda at every opportunity.
Manchin and Sinema voted with Trump more than any of their sitting Democratic Senate colleagues between early 2017 and early 2021. Sinema’s record has skewed more toward Trump more than any other Democrat, which is an alarming statistic when you factor in the political lean of her constituency.
Democrats now realize that this is their last chance to mount a critical campaign to apply pressure to both Sinema and Manchin in time to pass vital election protections before the next Midterm Election. Nearly all conservatively controlled states have passed laws at the state level meant to restrict voting rights and access the ballot box.
The Brennan Center, which has been tracking these legislative efforts to restrict the vote, has found that the United States is on track to well exceed its most recent period of significant voter suppression, which occurred in 2011. Between January 1 and May 14, 2021, at least 14 states enacted 22 new laws restricting voting access. With many state legislatures still in session, many more laws restricting access to the ballot box are still expected.
The need to advocate for eliminating the filibuster has never been more urgent. We all must speak out on this issue now, far enough ahead of the next election to guarantee voter protections, and I urge you to contact the offices of those Senators who refuse to budge on the filibuster issue.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
Paid subscriptions and one-time tributes embedded in each article allow me to keep publishing critical and informative work that is sometimes made available to the public — thank you. If you like this piece and want to support independent journalism further, you can forward this article to others, get a paid subscription or gift subscription, or donate as much as you like today.
I have mixed feelings about ending the filibuster. Yes it was once used to protect the minority and yes it was a gimme to slave-holding states but it has become a weapon of the minority to enforce minority rule. The republicons have put us in this position by weaponizing the rules of the government they serve to carry out their agenda whether they have the majority or not. From blocking judicial appointments to blocking military promotions and ambassadorships to filibustering merely to kill legislation, the minority party has been adept at using the legitimate tools of government to effectively render government useless. It would be one thing if they did this to bring attention and compromise but it seems they do it as a political stunt so they can sit back and collect a paycheck bemoaning how government is broke while being the very assholes that broke it. Maybe we go back to the old rules of filibuster and none of this just saying you will filibuster counts as filibuster. Maybe if they had to actually stand there in the Capitol and talk nonstop for hours and hours like the old days they would think twice and come to the bargaining table.