WASHINGTON — Many Democrats in the Senate are pushing to remove what’s known as the Senate filibuster from the rules of the Senate in order to try and push through legislation passed by the House.
One bill in particular that Democrats want to move through is “HR1” which would expand voting access and change campaign financing rules among many other things.
“That (HR1) has so much consequence to it that shapes elections down the road,” Sen. Mike Braun told the Guy Benson Show on Fox News Radio. “They do not want that to fall flat in the Senate.”
The Senate filibuster is what stands in the way of HR1 passing. It’s a rule that requires at least 60 senators to support ending debate on a measure that is up for discussion. If debate cannot be ended with the support of enough senators, then the measure cannot proceed to a full-on vote and thus it has been “filibustered.”
There are a few instances in which Democrats could curtail the filibuster by themselves, but they would need the support of every Democrat senator.
“And then the question is when they do that, then do you get gun legislation,” Braun asked. “Do you get any of the other stuff that they have teed up?
But, not every Democrat senator supports ending the filibuster. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are two Democrats that do not support are among those against doing that.
That relieving for senators like Braun who say that filibuster is a critical rule that likely would never come back until Republicans reclaim the Senate.
“Once it’s gone, it’s gone and the dike is broken and then our only way to get it back is to reconstitute in 2022,” said Braun. “Otherwise we’ll become like the House of Representatives and you’re going to get strictly partisan legislation done.”
Right now, any attempts to do away with the filibuster rule are highly unlikely to be successful, according to the Brookings Institute. However, Democrats could invoke new rules to make the filibuster less impactful on subject legislation by themselves. But Manchin and Sinema would have to be on board with the changes.
