When President Biden expressed support for a modest filibuster change this week, reform advocates took it as a major turning point. Their cause for celebration? The president was acknowledging that the fate of his agenda is tied to Senate procedure, which makes it difficult to deliver on campaign promises. And a stymied agenda could have consequences for the party.
"It will be Armageddon," Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley told CBS News when asked whether Democrats will suffer in the midterms if they don't enact filibuster reforms. "Our base will be so dispirited, so angry, so disaffected. They will stay home. And I understand why they will stay home if we failed them."
Merkley has long been pushing for filibuster changes, and introduced the "talking filibuster" which would require senators to actually hold the floor to hold up legislation rather than the current practice of phoning it in. In an interview with ABC News, Mr. Biden said he supported that kind of reform, which reminded him of how the upper chamber operated in his early days as a senator. Now, he said, "It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning."
Support for significant filibuster changes is still a long way off, with some Democratic senators like Joe Manchin maintaining opposition to changing the 60-vote threshold for legislation even as they appear open to adjustments.
But advocates note that Republicans haven't yet filibustered legislation, such as the COVID relief bill, which was passed on party lines through a reconciliation process that only requires majority support. Once the opposition begins in earnest to agenda items like voting rights, climate, immigration and other Democratic priorities, the calls from the base of the party to change the upper chamber's rules will only grow louder.
"Right now it's an abstract issue, nothing has been filibustered yet. It's going to get real quickly," said Eli Zupnick, spokesman for Fix Our Senate, which launched a six figure ad campaign this week pushing lawmakers to eliminate the filibuster.
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