In an interview with Chris Ryan, the junior US Senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley, discusses the possibility that the Senate will end the filibuster rule, in order to push through President Biden’s progressive, legislative agenda; shares his opinion about whether the Biden Presidency has gone too far left; and predicts whether moderate Democrat Senators, like Hassan and Shaheen, will vote to end the filibuster.
Senator Merkley is a Democrat who has served in the US Senate since 2009 and won reelection in 2014 and 2020. He considered a run for president in 2016, but he withdrew and endorsed Bernie Sanders.
The rules of the US Senate allow one or more senators to block legislation by speaking against a bill for as long as they want. This filibuster can only be ended a cloture vote, when 3/5’s or 60 senators vote to end the filibuster.
That is why it currently takes 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate. The filibuster protects the minority party by allowing them to participate in debate, and it prevents the majority party from steamrolling legislation.
With the Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, Senator Merkley sees the filibuster as a rule which has “paralyzed the Senate” and has to be changed. The Senator describes several plans to change or get around the filibuster rule.
Senator Merkley explained how the filibuster rule has been dealt with in the past when it was deemed an obstruction to the good order of the Senate. The Senator explains four filibuster reform options.
The Senate leadership could invoke the Nuclear Option—a simple majority vote is needed to move legislation or presidential nominations for office. Another solution is the Harkin Plan—after a number of days the number of votes required to end the filibuster would decrease from 60 to 58 and so on.
The special exemption rule or reconciliation rule which was previously used for votes on the national debt could be used to call for a vote on the For the People Act involving voting rights.
Another rule change would require the filibuster torevert back to being a standing filibuster. Prior to a rule change in 1975, the objecting senators would have to actually stand in the Senate and speak indefinitely if they want to block legislation.
Senator Merkley believes that the policies of Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, to obstruct and delay legislation have forced the democrats to use one of these four plans to end the filibuster.
When he was asked if a compromise plan of requiring 55 votes to end a filibuster might help to bring about bipartisan agreement, Senator Merkley didn’t answer the question. Instead, the Senator talked about how eventually Republican minorities eventually accepted progressive legislation like Social Security and Medicare.
The Senator from Oregon does not think that President Biden has governed too far from the left. Senator Markley, a staunch supporter of climate change legislation, criticizes President Biden for approving a massive oil pumping scheme called the Willow Project in Alaska.
In the final segment of the interview, Senator Markley described how Mitch McConnell has used a theory of power to block the Democrats from getting anything done. The Senator believes that even moderate Democrats like Hassan and Shaheen will support ending the filibuster rule.