Filibuster Reform

Tom Harkin Looks To Courts To Reform The Filibuster

Brian Beutler | January 28, 2011, 9:43AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a long-time advocate of filibuster reform, was the lone senior senator to publicly align himself with Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in their effort to change the Senate's rules.

Those efforts were neutered this week by the leaders of both parties. With the exception of some modest tweaks, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed that the rules would remain largely unchanged. Beyond that, though,they shook hands and agreed that for the next several years, neither party will attempt to change the filibuster rules on a majority-vote basis -- what's known as the "Constitutional option."

Under these circumstances, Harkin has given up hope that the Senate will ever reassess itself, and is looking to the courts to step in and shake things up.

"It's clear now that the Senate can not change its rules," Harkin told me in an interview Thursday evening. "It can not."

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Filibuster Reform

Filibuster Reform Effort Falls Short In Senate

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2011, 6:02PM

Senator Tom Udall (D-NM)

An effort to change the Senate's filibuster rules on a majority-vote basis ended Tuesday evening under growing pressure from Democratic and Republican party leaders.

In its place, senators from both parties will soon consider a bipartisan framework, negotiated by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), which include a handful of more modest reforms.

"We don't have an agreement yet," Alexander told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "We're still having discussions. Several of our members, and several Democratic members still have decisions to make. And when we finish, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell will go to the floor and announce an agreement when there is an agreement.

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Filibuster Reform

Joe Biden: The Key To Filibuster Reform?

Brian Beutler | January 24, 2011, 10:50AM

Vice President Biden

This week, a group of Democratic filibuster reformers will face the first big test of their effort to invoke the "Constitutional Option" -- a process by which members can change the Senate rules by a majority vote. The theory underlying their efforts is that the previous Senate's rules aren't really valid until the new Senate has intentionally adopted them.

That's leading to confusion over whether they're truly on the path to invoking the Constitutional Option -- and that, in turn, means Vice President Joe Biden might have to weigh in and settle the dispute.

Here's the issue under contention.

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Filibuster Reform

Republicans 'Giddy' About One Proposed Filibuster Reform

Brian Beutler | January 7, 2011, 1:26PM

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

In a bid to attract Republican support for filibuster reform, Democrats led by Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley have proposed a new rule that would guarantee the minority party the chance to offer three amendments to any legislation.

It may have worked too well. A senior Senate Republican leadership aide says GOP members would be "giddy" if they were given that right.

Here's why. Those amendments would be filibuster-proof -- among the only pieces of legislation in all the Senate to enjoy that privilege -- and would therefore be a recipe for poison pill amendments on both sides.

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Filibuster Reform

How Senate Filibuster Reform Could Invite A Flood Of Poison Pills

Brian Beutler | January 6, 2011, 9:25AM

Harry Reid (D-NV)

A provision in a new package of Senate filibuster reforms meant to protect the minority from the majority's power has supporters both on and off the Hill nervous about its potential to invite poison pills.

One of the GOP's main criticisms of Harry Reid's leadership is that he too often "fills the amendment tree," which essentially eliminates the minority's power to offer amendments. To address that, reform leaders Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) included a measure in their rules package that would have guaranteed the majority and the minority votes on three germane amendments, regardless of whether the "amendment tree" was otherwise filled.

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Filibuster Reform

BREAKING: Senate Filibuster Reform Package

Brian Beutler | January 5, 2011, 12:21PM

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Harry Reid (D-NV)

Here are the specific filibuster reforms that Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), will be pushing beginning this afternoon, obtained by TPM. Spoiler: they include at least one little-discussed item meant to appeal to the minority.

As promised, Udall proposes ending secret holds and the right of the minority to filibuster the start of debate, and demanding the "talking" filibuster.

But, according to documents provided by Udall's office in advance of his floor speech, it also includes a proposal that guarantees both parties the right to amend legislation -- limiting the majority leader's power to "fill the amendment tree" and block extended debate.

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Filibuster Reform

Filibuster Reform Effort Kicks Off Today

Brian Beutler | January 5, 2011, 10:43AM

Senator Tom Udall (D-NM)

Today, a number of Democrats will launch their attempt to amend the filibuster.

Wednesday afternoon on the Senate floor, armed with a package of reforms, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) will take the first in a complicated, unusual series of steps that allows a simple-majority of senators to change the Senate rules.

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Filibuster Reform

The Senate's Long, Twisted, Bumpy Road To Filibuster Reform

Brian Beutler | December 31, 2010, 8:50AM

Vice President Biden

At some point on January 5, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) will take the Senate floor and begin a process that he hopes will end in the successful use of the "Constitutional option" -- the prerogative of a majority of the Senate's members to rewrite its rules on the first day of a new Congress.

He and his allies have been vocal about their plan. But the actual sequence of events that starts with him giving a speech, and ends with filibuster reform, is obscure, fragile, and extremely complicated. In fact, it's so involved that the "first day" of the 112th Senate could actually last for weeks.

There are myriad unknowns and X-factors that could change the course of events, and even upend Udall's ambitions altogether. But what follows is a list of steps he and the Senate will have to take to succeed in exercising the "Constitutional option," so called because the Constitution empowers the Senate to write its own rules.

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Filibuster

How Harry Reid And Mitch McConnell Could Upend Filibuster Reform

Brian Beutler | December 30, 2010, 12:10PM

A handful of junior Democrats, including Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), have done an impressive job building momentum for a package of modest, but meaningful, changes to the Senate's filibuster rules. But their plan could be completely upended and replaced by even more modest reforms, if Democratic and Republican leaders successfully negotiate a bipartisan rules reform compromise.

In a phone interview with me Wednesday, Udall described negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as a "separate track" from his own efforts.

A Senate Democratic aide confirms that those discussions are ongoing, and haven't yet yielded consensus. But if they do, that consensus would serve as a stand-in for Udall's approach, not as an endorsement of it, as previous reporting has suggested.

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Tom Udall

Paging Mr. Smith! How The Senate May Return To The Old-School Filibuster

Brian Beutler | December 30, 2010, 8:30AM

Still from "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" (1939)

On January 5, 2011 -- the first day of the 112th Congress -- Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) will touch off a long debate, which he hopes will result in a majority-rules vote on a package of meaningful changes to the Senate rules. After a series of private conversations with Democratic members, he and his allies have settled upon a framework including three distinct reforms designed to unclog the Senate and scale back the minority's power.

The consensus package will aim to put an end to "secret holds" (anonymous filibuster threats) and disallow the minority from blocking debate on an issue altogether. Those two reforms are fairly straightforward. The third is a bit more complex. Udall, along with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), say there's broad agreement on the idea to force old-school filibusters. If members want to keep debating a bill, they'll have to actually talk. No more lazy filibusters.

But how would that actually work? In an interview Wednesday, Udall explained the ins and outs of that particular proposal.

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Filibuster Reform

Report: Reid 'Devising A Plan' For Filibuster Reform

Eric Kleefeld | December 23, 2010, 12:52PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Is momentum building for Senate Democrats to change the filibuster rules, following the past two years in which Senate GOPers used their reduced numbers to throw up more procedural blocks than in any past Congress?

As Greg Sargent reports:

At a caucus meeting this week attended only by Senators and no staff, Reid and fellow Dems devoted a significant chunk of time to a discussion about specific ideas on how to proceed, the aide says.

...

"They are already talking it through and devising a plan," the aide said of Reid and fellow Dems, adding that Reid is having "conversations" with other members of the caucus "about the best way to move forward."

Sargent reports that various ideas have made the rounds, including efforts to do away with the modern phony filibuster and force Senators to actually talk on the floor. But how would they change the rules? Sargent reports: "Dems are also coalescing behind the so-called 'constitutional option,' which has it that each new Congress has the right to set its own rules by simple majority vote."

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Filibuster Reform

Freshman Dems Push To End The Filibuster, Face Dem Opposition

Brian Beutler | August 4, 2010, 2:27PM

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)

With a depleted majority expected next January, Democrats will have a decision to make: accept (no) business as usual in the Senate; or change the rules to erode Republicans' ability to obstruct legislation. It's an issue that few in the caucus are prepared to grapple with, and many would prefer to ignore, but a cadre of Democratic freshman plan to force it on day one of the 112th Congress. At stake will likely be the functioning of the federal government, and the party's ability to restore the economy and deliver on their agenda. Yet despite such a stark choice, some in their own party are encouraging them to back off, and even supporters are damping expectations of success.

The leader of the push for rules reform is Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), whose black cowboy boots and western twang complement his rebellious streak: he thinks the Senate is enamored of itself, hostile to change, and that it's time for all that to end.

"You have to be responsive to what you see, and what you see is a broken institution, and you have to reform that institution," Udall told TPMDC in his Senate office this week.

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