Senate Democrats hope to eliminate the legislative filibuster, the 60-vote threshold for advancing major legislation, in order to expedite the Biden administration’s agenda. The measure was once hailed as an important procedural hurdle within the upper chamber, but now, for the sake of political convenience, Democrats oppose the filibuster.
Senate Republicans have reminded their colleagues about previous support for the filibuster, which Democrats used multiple times while in the minority in the upper chamber.
Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) also gave President Biden a refresher on his support for the filibuster while he represented Delaware in the Senate. Late on Wednesday night, Sasse read a floor speech from Biden in which the president defended the filibuster.
“Put simply, the ‘nuclear option’ would eviscerate the Senate and turn it into the House of Representatives. It is not only a bad idea, it upsets the constitutional design and it disserves the country. No longer would the Senate be that ‘different kind of legislative body’ that the Founders intended. No longer would the Senate be the ‘saucer’ to cool the passions of the immediate majority,” Sasse said, quoting Biden from 2005. “ Despite the short-term pain, that understanding has served both parties well, and provided long-term gain. Adopting the "nuclear option" would change this fundamental understanding and unbroken practice of what the Senate is all about...For me, the lesson from my 1975 experience, which I believe strongly applies to the dispute today, is that the Senate ought not act rashly by changing its rules to satisfy a strong-willed majority acting in the heat of the moment.”
??Right Now: @BenSasse is giving a speech on the Senate floor ??
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 25, 2021
In honor of new reports that President Biden is open to destroying the filibuster, Sasse is reading (word-for-word) a 2005 speech from Senator Biden.. about the importance of the filibusterhttps://t.co/37EvEoanR6 pic.twitter.com/UmMNrmRv4h
Biden has since come out in support of “filibuster reform.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed that “nothing is off the table,” but he does not yet have the votes to eliminate the legislative filibuster.