Okay, I know it was a slam dunk, but still…
Filibuster reform is in trouble, proponents warn, at the hands of a scaled-back proposal they say would enhance rather than diminish the Senate minority’s power to obstruct.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) says his proposal to force filibustering senators to occupy the floor and speak ceaselessly could be in jeopardy, thanks to a new bipartisan filibuster package that he and his ally Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) argue would do more harm than good to the cause.
“Normally the majority party has a right to determine the agenda of the Senate. They don’t have the right to pass bills. That’s up to the majority of the Senate,” Udall said on the floor Wednesday. “But then the majority leader should have the right to bring a bill to the floor of the Senate. And that has been denied over and over again by the minority party. That’s wrong.”
The dueling proposal, spearheaded by longtime Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI), would make it somewhat tougher for the minority to block debate on legislation but also guarantee them two amendments on bills, regardless of germaneness or relevancy to the main topic of the legislation.
“It’s a step backward rather than a step forward,” a Merkley aide said. “It doesn’t attack the core of the matter. It doesn’t include a talking filibuster. And it allows the minority to kill legislation with poison pill amendments. It keeps all the tools minority has to obstruct and then gives them another tool.”
(via TPMDC)
A few days ago I predicted the following for the coming year:
The United States Senate will make a gesture toward reforming its rules, but will do nothing meaningful. To the extent anything meaningful is proposed, it will be defeated in response to cries of unfairness from the same Republicans, including the Fox News people, who condemned filibusters when Democrats threatened to use them (and didn’t because they were intimidated).
Actually, if the bi-partisan reform (which always means it favors Republicans) comes about, I will, in a sense, be wrong, as it will make the situation even worse, since I predicted that the “reform” would be merely meaningless. But I’ll still take it, lamentably as one more easy prediction that came about. There’s always a Democrat, this time the usually good Carl Levin, who will play nice with Republicans and prevent real progress on any issue. Here’s hoping (but don’t hold your breath) that Harry Reid will back the Merkley plan.
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