Fili-Busting

Fili-Busting

Fili-Busting

George Packer reported last summer on the ?mindless? obstructionism afflicting the Senate. ?[Senators] these days direct much of their creative energy toward the manipulation of arcane rules and loopholes, scoring short-term successes while magnifying their institution?s broader dysfunction.? While the overuse of procedural points to gum up the legislative process has been a problem for years, Republican have abused the filibuster on an unprecedented scale since Obama?s arrival at the White House.

A number of former and current politicians have since argued for Senate rule reform. Walter Mondale, who helped reform the filibuster decades ago, pleaded for another rule change on New Year?s Day. ?The Senate never even considered some appropriations and authorization bills, and failed to settle on a federal budget for all of next year. Votes on this sort of legislation used to be routine?? Mondale has argued for an end to the practice of anonymous holds and for reducing the number of Senators needed to break a filibuster, and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa recommends a similar course; Rhode Island?s Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants to simplify the filibuster, so that it isn?t reinitiated at various stages of the legislative process.

Last week, a petition signed by hundreds of historians, political scientists, and legal scholars, including Dissent co-editor Michael Kazin, was presented to the Senate, urging filibuster reform. ?We, the undersigned?call upon our senators to restore majority rule to the United States Senate by revising the rules that now require the concurrence of 60 members before legislation can be brought to the floor for debate and restoring majority vote for the passage of bills.? It?s uncertain whether the 112th Congress will make the changes necessary to restore a truly deliberate atmosphere to the Senate; at the end of its two-week recess, the new Senate rules will be announced.