In the United States Senate, a filibuster is a tactic that is designed to prevent a measure on the floor of the Senate from being brought to a vote. How does it work? A group of Senators (usually in the minority) will simply block the vote on the measure by the entire Senate by continuing to debate the issue in a never-ending fashion. Is it time for the Senate to discontinue the usage of filibuster?
Origins: The filibuster dates back to 1805, when Aaron Burr as Vice-President served as the President of the Senate. Burr sought to remove a Senate procedure that forced an end to debate believing that it was redundant and that those matters of great importance were already covered by other rules that ended debate. As a result of the change, the minority party could now stall legislation from passing the Senate by simply continuing to debate the measure rather than letting the debate end so a vote could be taken. After the 1805 rules change, filibusters virtually blocked all Senate action on the slavery issue. After the civil war, filibusters were orderly established procedures with super majorities required in certain, well-defined areas.
Cloture: In 1917 the Senate established what’s known as cloture that would shut down debate after a two-thirds majority vote. Under cloture, the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to thirty additional hours of debate. In 1975 the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds of senators voting to three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn, or sixty of the 100-member Senate.
Two Track System: In 1970 the Senate created the “two-track system” that allows the majority leader to consider more than one piece of legislation at the same time. This would permit the Senate to work on other legislation when a bill is blocked by a filibuster. In the 1970’s filibusters were further watered down if the provisions of the bill impacted spending and/or taxes. This allowed tax cuts or increases to be managed via simple majorities contributing to the massive fiscal deficits the federal government has today. It may have also contributed to the massive inflation of the 1970’s.
Tyranny by majority: One reason for the change in procedure that permitted filibusters was to give the minority a voice in the debate and help them to avoid being routinely crushed by a majority of only a one or two votes. Its main goal was to prevent tyranny by a simple majority, requiring a super majority for issues that were deemed critically important towards the welfare of the entire country.
Tool for bipartisanship: The filibuster became an incentive for bipartisanship in that to gain cloture, a bill’s creators must give something in the bill to entice enough members of the opposition to get it passed. More recently, however, the Senate has changed hands numerous times creating the incentive to use filibuster to block legislation now, hoping for a pickup in votes in the next election. Debate continues to this day as to what should be allowed under a filibuster. The minority, whichever side it is, needs to keep the filibuster available.
Conclusions: Both political parties intend to keep filibuster in one form or another as it becomes their only tool of relevance when the other party is in the majority. Giving the minority something to keep them united with the majority goes back in our history right from the start, as the smaller states believed that the larger ones would end up getting everything in Congress leaving the smaller ones with table scraps. This fear of tyranny by majority exists today, but can be mitigated by a tyranny of minority considering that the Democratic paper-thin majority in the Senate could be faced with a filibuster that would block key legislation for their agenda by forty-one Republican senators that represent only 23% of the nation’s population. In the final analysis, this author is in favor of retaining the filibuster in that minority voices should be heard, and bipartisan dealing should return to the forefront.
Sources: The Economist, Motion to Dismiss, March 13, 2021.
Wikipedia.