Filibuster Process

The filibuster, a result of following Vice President Aaron Burr’s request to clean up the Senate’s rule book in 1805, once used to hold procedure by Senators to allow them time to arrive and debate or vote on legislation has been hijacked by minority Republicans into indefinite vetoes of legislation and administration nominations. While scarcely used by Senators to block legislation - President Woodrow Wilson attempt to prepare the U.S. for WWI found it difficult to pass legislation in preparation of the war introduced the cloture rule to close debate by a two-thirds majority vote that was modified in 1975 to a only three-fifths majority - Republicans have exploited this procedure to where even just the threat of a filibuster can block legislation and nominations creating mass gridlock. It was once required, if a Senator wanted to filibuster a bill, to stand on the Senate floor and speak nonstop in an attempt to coerce his cohorts to alter their stance. The filibuster has given a minority in the Senate the ability to veto legislation even if a majority of legislators in both houses and the president approve of the bill. The filibuster, with no precedent in the U.S. Constitution, has given a small minority of 41 the power to control and sway critical legislation in a way not envisioned by the founding framers as they constructed the United States governmental

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.

Today, Supreme Court Nominee’s, Neil Gorsuch, Confirmation hearing came near conclusion on a very confrontational note with the Senate’s Principal Democrat threatening to filibuster. This would complicate the way the senate “conducts its business”. The Republicans eager to confirm Gorsuch only have a 52-majority instead of the 60-majority that is necessary. However, they say he will be confirmed anyway, even if it means removing the filibuster option and allowing nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s decision to filibuster was not unexpected but it will increase tension in the senate. “If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees, and George Bush’s last two nominees — the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee,” he said. Although the democrats do not have the votes to block this motion, his filibuster will publicize the resistance in the Congress.

Filibuster is defined as a prolonged speech that obstructs progress in legislation. Filibusters are a waste of legislation time, which could be put toward more important bills that could and need to be passed.

Filibuster in short is an action that the Senate uses to prolong or procrastinate passing a bill making it to a law. This can definitely contribute to gridlock. Congressional gridlock can be traced back many years. Some seem to think it all started when the political parties changed.

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.

In 2013, the thought of using filibusters to an advantage of a political party’s side in a legislative assembly was removed; therefore, it now takes a majority vote to decide on all Supreme Court nominees and executive appointments. The majority vote is being identified as the “nuclear option”. The ruling of filibuster was voted to be removed by the U.S. Senate, due to the fact that Democrats believed that Republicans unfairly abused filibuster in attempt to veto a nominee by the president (Richardson). Now that a president of the Republican party is in position, the tables have turned. Nevertheless, as the Republican party holds 52 senate seats, Democrats only holding 46, Republicans have the ability to virtually shut down the minority and

Throughout history, there have been many factors that seem to have influenced the operations of Congress. Some of these factors have been the committee system, seniority, and political parties. These are only a few of the factors that actually have an influence on Congress’s decisions of certain operations.

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

In the event a bill is strongly favored by the committee the Congress leaders have a floor debate. “Major bills must first go to the Rules Committee, which decides where bills will appear on the legislation calendar and the terms under which bills will be debated by the House” (Greenberg, 351). Specific rules include; the nature of the amendments, how much time can be spent debating, and a number if necessary. The committee has the power to have a “closed ruling” which allows for a yes or no vote. In a floor debate, the Senate determines the final form of the bill also, “The threat of a hold or a filibuster means that the minority in Senate plays an important role in determining the final step of legislation” (Greenberg, 352). After this step, the members of the chamber either vote once the bill has been reported or after the amendments have been added. Once

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.

We have come across an uncommon issue which is, congress, specifically senate, is not making any progress in advising or consenting the nominee U.S. Supreme Court Judge chosen by Obama. Through logic, senate’s lack of responsiveness is not okay. Obama should appoint Merrick Garland because the Senate has not even stated doing its job in holding hearings or voting. Further, it has not done its constitutional role of advice and consent. Structurally, the powers of Judge appointments are in the presidents’ section of the Constitution meaning they are shared powers, but more like shared obligations. The awareness of this is seen where FDR threatened to pack the court because that power was delegated to him. The Senate has this obligation, they have not started the process, yet they know they have to, they know they can vote no, but they just want to leave it to the next president. In Humphrey’s we see that Congress has intervention in the inferior offices, but only through statute, meaning that only through statute can congress be involved sometimes. This ties into how through legal matters they do advice and consent. In the prize cases, we see that Lincoln was allowed to take from an industry outside of the war exception, absent of congresses authorization, because they were unsure if there was even a war at the times of civil war. In Goldwater v. carter, the plurality find for carter senate’s role ends at ratification when it comes to ratifying treaties, yet they also find

Filibusters were a common tactic used for preventing the passing of a bill by holding the senate floor and using any means to delay or block

The blocking of legislation is nothing new to the Republican party. According to the article Why Washington’s Tied Up in Knots, Republicans have been blocking legislation since the late nineteen sixties, where they blocked a little less than ten percent of major legislation using the filibuster tactic. The filibuster was a rare thing to behold, on average only occurring once every ten years, until during Bill Clinton's term in which nearly fifty eight filibusters had been enacted by the Republican party. The number of filibusters has nearly doubled in just the past year alone, with a whopping one thirty eight filibusters (United States Senate), all instigated by the Republican party to block as many of President Barack Obama's initiatives as possible, including the delay and possible destruction of the all important health care bill.

Now that the bill has been passed through the House, it is ready to go through the proceedings of the Senate. First, the bill is again introduced but now by a senator who must be recognized by the presiding officer and announce the introduction of the bill. A bill that has passed either house of congress is sometimes called an act, but the term usually means legislation that has passed both houses and become a law. Secondly, the Vice President of the US, who is the presiding officer of the Senate, assigns the proposed law to a committee for further study ( the Senate has about 15 standing committees). The committees or one of its subcommittees studies the bill and may hold hearings. The committee may approve the bill as is, revise the bill, or table the bill. Now the bill goes to the Senate to await its turn on the Senate floor. Normally the bill is considered as introduced unless the bill is urgent in which case the leaders of the majority party might push it ahead. At this time the Senate considers the bill. Here senators can debate a bill indefinitely, unless voted otherwise. When there is no further discussion, the Senate votes. Most bills must have simple majority to pass. At this point of development, the process is especially exemplary because the bill in the Senate is now considered by debate to better illustrate its strengths and/or weaknesses. To summarize, the bill has now been passed by both houses of congress.