Community | December 18, 2010 | 17 comments

Filibuster Reform finds Bipartisan Support in Senate

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/changes-senate-rules-filibuster-transparency_n_7985...

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jeffissleeping
Senate Democrats met for their second caucus meeting about reforming chamber rules Friday, beginning to converge on three changes that supporters hope will increase transparency and prevent a small minority from blocking an up-or-down vote on measures.

"This is a two-step process," Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), one of the leaders of the effort, told The Huffington Post in an interview after the caucus meeting.

"The first step is that we need to recognize that under the Constitution, we can...adopt rules with 51 votes and also cut off debate on rules that we want to adopt with 51 votes. ... The second step is building the consensus with 51 senators on what they want to actually be in the rules. ... And that's the tough business we're in right now."

According to Udall, bipartisan support is beginning to build around three proposals:

1) No longer allowing senators to filibuster the motion to proceed and instead allow a set amount of time for debate

2) ending secret holds

3) stopping filibustering senators from hiding behind quorum calls and forcing them to speak up if they're blocking a bill.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/changes-senate-rules-filibuster-transpa...
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17 comments // Filibuster Reform finds Bipartisan Support in Senate

  • Mark701
    • -1
      Mark701  

    • http://whore.th

      Here we go again. The last time the GOP had control of Congress the democratic party was threatened with Frist's "nuclear option" i.e. getting rid of the filibuster. If a small group of GOP senators hadn't stepped in, the filibuster would have been eliminated.

      Not surprisingly, when the GOP had lost both houses of Congress they subsequently used filibusters like a cheap whore to throw a wrench in the Obama Administration's legislative initiatives.

      Now, they have control of one house of congress and they want to "reform" the use of the filibuster AGAIN (probably because they anticipate taking control of the senate in 2012) and at least some democratic congressmen are going along.

      To be honest, the GOP should be told to go fuck itself. The democrats should tell them If they want to change the filibuster rules, it'll have to wait until the democrats have control of both houses of Congress.

    • 1 year ago
  • JohnA
  • hammywill
    • +1
      hammywill  

    • Umm...how come they do this just before they lose control of the House? Why did they not do this before, like to get a single payer option. NOW they decide to reform the filibuster? We have retards in office, on both sides of the aisle.

    • 1 year ago
  • NickerBocker09
    • 0
      NickerBocker09  

    • Thank god! Finally this nonsense will end. The filibuster has been warped to an annoying tool for party politics. The House used to have it about a hundred years ago, they were smart enough to can it. Im not in support of completely getting rid of it in the Senate, but I definitely support reforming it.

    • 1 year ago
  • MizPiz
    • 0
      MizPiz  

    • I find it hard to believe that the one thing the senate can agree on is that we should remove one of the key methods they use to fuck each other over.

    • 1 year ago
  • BrushwithDeathToothpaste
    • 0
      BrushwithDeathToothpaste  

    • So the first thing Democrats do when they are are on the brink of defeat is to disarm themselves? Republicans will drag this out until they are about to take the Senate. I'm sure Democrats will bring back the filibuster right before coming into power again.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
  • UrbanGypsy
  • jeffissleeping
  • pjacobs51
  • jeffissleeping
  • EdJoyProductions
  • hammywill
  • Progresshiv
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