Filibuster In The Senate Essay

The tactic, filibuster has a long history dating back to the 1800’s; it is used to delay bills being passed. It has been a way to win votes for the people and gives senates time to attain the votes they need or get they’re points across (US Site). Many don’t find this move very appealing because it is used mostly by the minority party to give some-kind of power over the majority. In fact, some senates argue that it should be abolished, there have been actions placed to end debates such as the cloture and the nuclear option. However, it is a lengthy process that does not guarantee an end to a filibuster.

“The filibuster has been used 1,300 times since 1917” and in the last “12 years [from 2010 to 1998]... the filibuster was used nearly 600 times!” This causes a massive slowdown in Congress making bills inefficient to pass. Each of these stands takes hours and hours so for using it that much is a waste of time. “There is no certain number of days that a bill has to become law, but it must be voted on in the same congressional session, or same year, that it is introduced. If it is not voted on during the session, it can be reintroduced the following year, when it must start its journey over again” and the “most popular stage for a bill to die [is] Committee of the chamber bill is introduced in”. These all point to the fact that people are abusing the right of using a filibuster to make rules they don’t like by delaying them. This realization is the start of the nuclear option, a bill that could make filibusters eliminated or almost completely limited from

But, the Constitution limits the majority only because of the fear of uprisings from the minorities. The framers wrote the Constitution with the mindset of preventing the majority to dominate the minority. If there was no limit on majority rule, the majority could end up making all the decisions. This would leave the minorities fueled with anger and they would have a reason to overthrow the government. An uprising that caused the framers to limit majority rule was Shay’s Rebellion. The framers saw that the minority, poor farmers, did not have any choice because the majority dominated them. The framers also realized that this uprising could have taken down the nation because the nation was also unorganized and weak at that time. This event made the framers realized that the minority should also have power or else the majority would dominate again.

Shields of the filibuster alert against changing the framework, saying that the delay is a critical security of minority-gathering rights. They say the filibuster backtracks to the authors' desire to make a national government with deliberately built balanced governance and that increasing the procedure debilitates the very condition of American majority rules system. A few Republicans call the thought of demolishing the delay a Democratic power grab.

On the other hand, there are a lot of cons to filibusters too. It is true that having the power to filibuster helps ensure the voices of the minority but it can also mean that having the power to filibuster ensures the tyranny of the minority. Because the size of the senate is not based on the size of the population of each state, every state gets two senators. It is now possible according to Jean Edward Smith, “for the senators representing the 34 million people who live in the 21 least populous states — a little more than 11 percent of the nation’s population — to nullify the wishes of the representatives of the remaining 88 percent of Americans. (Smith, 2009). This is completely the opposite of what the framers wanted, they wanted the government to represent the people not a small portion of the people. This is very dangerous because now if ever the more populous states wants to pass a bill on an issue regarding their states population, the more sparse states

Although the president of the United States is less likely to accept Bill 3923, Congress seems to be more diverse than ever. For the 115th Congress, there are 239 Republican representatives and 197 Democrats in the House of Representatives and 52 republicans, 46 democrats, and two independent representatives in the Senate. As of 2017-2018, the Congress is more or less diverse, however, there are more republicans than democrats. The diversity in Congress makes it more likely for bills like 3923 to be passed because of the number of members of the democrat party and the influence each party has on one another. Since Congress is now more diverse, both with ethnicities and sexes, there are more experiences to be shared which can lead for a decision to improve the conditions of other

Because of this their ability to review bills, and legislation is hampered because they lack the public authority. On the other side, when it does not exercise its powers what is the point of having a senate at all, is it not a waste of money to keep senators around if they cannot do their job (Gibbins 2010, 3)? This has led to two distinct camps, the creation of a Triple-E Senate , and the abolition of the senate (Gibbins 2010, 9). However both of these recommendations, as seen above, require constitutional change, leaving reformers no choice but to call for the constitution to be re-opened.

Recently many people believe that congress has not been working efficiently. Over the past couple of years the amount of laws passed has been at an all time low, and Congress has been receiving mostly negative reviews from the American public. In his book Unlock Congress, Michael Golden discusses many of the problems that have been negatively affecting Congress. Golden then offers many different solutions that he believes will help Congress work more smoothly.

A filibuster was first intended to let a minority opinion be heard during a senate meeting. It allowed any senator the right to speak. It later became a way for a senator to halt the progress of a bill. The rule was first allowed back in 1806. When it began to become a problem senate urged President Woodrow Wilson to pass a rule called cloture. Cloture was a way for the senate to vote to end a filibuster. It was put in place in 1917. The problem was, it didn’t vote out many attempts at a filibuster because cloture required a 2/3 vote to end a filibuster.

After Senator Boxer's unsurprising re-election to Senate, one of her most noteworthy decisions was to urge Senate to keep the filibuster. A filibuster is something that the Senators use to postpone or delay actions from being made. Recently, the Republican Party wanted to do away with the filibuster so that the Democrats could not use it against their judges. In 1995, Senator Boxer voted to get rid of the filibuster and admitted she did so out of "frustration". The Senate came to an agreement that if the Democrats use filibuster free votes for Judges Priscilla Owen, Janice Brown, and Wilson Pryor, they can block the nominations on Judges Henry Saad and William Myers without the Republicans trying to do away with the filibuster again.

Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) eliminated filbusters for most executive branch nominations, a maneuver known as the “nuclear option,” which drew widespread criticism from Republicans.

Federalist 51writen by James Madison explains the need for checks and balance built into our government. There are other things to read on this subject too. But this is pretty good. Recently we have been hearing about the how in the Senate their members are being pressured to resist at all costs the confirmation of Neil McGill Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by their left leaning constituency. Originally the Senators were not elected by popular vote as they are today. Only the House member were. The idea was that the Senate not elected by popular vote and by serving 6 years would be a more deliberative body not driven by the same pressures of the members of the House, who only serve 2 years and were elected by popular vote. The members of the

It allows the Senate to move faster in terms of considering and passing bills to go onto the floor, by requesting a unanimous consent on the

First of all, even though majority rule is often associated with democracy and political equality, the essence of democratic procedure does not require majority rule insofar as all the people have power over political affairs (Saunders, 2010). It is therefore necessary to

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been obstructing our government ever since the new administration took office. Schumer has obstructed every nominee from cabinet members all the way to the supreme court with the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, a very well respected judge and beyond qualified nomination for the supreme court. Not only does he obstruct nominees but rather many key issues addressing American’s today. He has told his obstructing friends in Congress to not work with Republicans on Health Care, Infrastructure, and Tax Reform. Schumer has stated that Democrats will not work with Republicans on these key issues and filibuster any votes if these issues do get to the senate. Schumer does not care about these issues addressing