So I understand what a filibuster is and how it works in practice. A filibuster is when a politician intentionally speaks as long as possible during debate to prevent a vote on legislation. And I know in practice, it means that any legislation needs 60 votes for cloture to end debate and bring legislation to a vote.
But my question is, how? Is the belief that every member of the minority party will take turns filibustering and delay the legislation for days if not weeks and derail the rest of the agenda? I’m trying to bridge the concept of a politician sitting in the pulpit for 12 hours reading off a phone book and how it works in practice where they vote for cloture and then give up if it doesn’t reach 60 votes. Can they just say they want to keep debate open and sit there unless the senate majority leader either calls for cloture or moves on to another bill?
In: Other
You pretty much understand things. Getting a little more detailed – each chamber sets its own rules for moving a bill through the process. In the House, debate is time-limited. You will hear Congresscritters say “I yield the remainder of my time…”. In the Senate, debate remains open until a cloture vote passes. If the cloture vote doesn’t pass, the bill in theory sits there in “debate” status until that session adjourns the last time and new Senators are seated.
There are situations where the Senate has changed the rules to allow cloture with only 50 votes. That was Mitch McConnell’s “nuclear option” with Supreme Court nominees. And there are special rules for spending bills, I think. The interesting bit is that the Senate can just change its rules to make cloture easier or harder. Or anything really. Those rules are not in the Constitution. They are just a list that every new session of the Senate votes to adopt as one of their very first activities.
Latest Answers