In light of the unceasing obstruction in this 113^th Senate that has blocked numerous qualified executive branch and judicial nominees from advancing and in anticipation of the Gang of 14 agreement’s anniversary later this week, Fix the Senate Now has unveiled a new ad in the Beltway newspaper Roll Call titled “Break the Logjam.” As the ad notes, today “our government agencies and federal courts are unable to serve the public properly because of unprecedented obstruction of Presidential nominees. President Obama won his election and now deserves an up or down vote on his nominees.” The ad calls on the Democratic majority to “make the Senate work again.”

 In addition to the Fix the Senate Now ad, a range of organizations and leaders involved with the Fix the Senate Now coalition are making clear the need for Senate rules reform:

• Alliance for Justice: Nan Aron, President of Alliance for Justice, wrote, “With battles ahead over President Obama’s choices for Secretary of Labor, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director and the National Labor Relations Board, and fights over the nation’s second most important court likely to follow, democracy itself is on trial in the United States Senate. If Republicans persist in preventing yes-or-no votes on President Obama’s executive and judicial nominees, the only recourse will be for the majority to revisit Senate rules reform and put an end once and for all to Republican efforts to subvert the Senate’s constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent.”

• Common Cause: Karen Hobert Flynn, Common Cause’s senior vice president for strategy and programs, stated, “Congress is about to leave Washington for its Memorial Day vacation … But as far as most Americans are concerned, the Senate has been on vacation since January, essentially paralyzed by a group of senators who’ve exploited the rules to block votes on important legislation and nominations that have been pending for months … The current Republican leadership has adopted routine use of the filibuster as an operating principle, making a mockery of the 'Gang of 14' deal and a new 'compromise' in January that was supposed to get the Senate back on track … We call on senators to revisit and change their rules so that legislation can pass and nominees can be confirmed with 51 votes, a simple majority.”
  
  
• The Communications Workers of America (CWA) released a statement noting, “Today, Republicans have since shredded the ‘Gang of 14’ deal and the subsequent gentleman’s agreement that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made at the beginning of this session, and they’ve resorted to obstruction by any means possible … If Senate Republicans continue to block votes on presidential nominees, the Senate’s Democratic majority has the ability to change the Senate rules on nominations. Obama’s nominees deserve an up-or-down vote. We don’t need another handshake agreement. It’s time for real change.”

• NAACP: Hilary Shelton, NAACP Director of the Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Policy, said in a statement, “The NAACP strongly urges the U.S. Senate to advance reforms that improve the basic functioning of the institution. Despite the Senate rules reform agreement announced in January, the filibuster and other procedural tools continue to enable a small number of Senators to halt progress on critical legislative priorities, block judicial appointees from key federal vacancies, and keep qualified executive branch nominees and agencies unable to fulfill their stated missions … We call on all Senators to recognize that the gridlock cannot continue and to explore reforms that ensure that qualified nominees can fill critical government and judicial vacancies.”

• Sierra Club: Michael Brune, Sierra Club Executive Director, said in a statement, “Whether it was minority leader Mitch McConnell filibustering his own bill or a committee full of Republicans not showing up to work to delay the appointment of Gina McCarthy, there is no shortage of evidence that Senate Republicans will do or say anything to stand in the way of a functioning government. In the meantime, the agencies in charge of protecting our air and water and defending the rights of workers and consumers are left without leaders and the courtrooms where our laws are enforced are left without judges. The cost of these political games is too high for American families and for our democracy. There is no excuse for sidelining highly-qualified nominees like Gina McCarthy and Thomas Perez any longer. It’s time responsible Senators stood up to the gridlock by pursuing reforms to fix the Senate and ensure a functioning government can no longer be held hostage by a handful of reckless ideologues.”

The topic of Senate rules reform has been back in the spotlight recently due to Senate obstruction and the possibility of Senate Democrats revisiting rules reform.  As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post reported last Friday, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is increasingly focused on the month of July as the time to exercise the so-called ‘nuclear option’ and revisit filibuster reform, and he has privately told top advisers that he’s all but certain to take action if the Senate GOP blocks three upcoming key nominations, a senior Senate Democratic aide familiar with his thinking tells me … Reid is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations, the aide says, on the theory that this is a good way to immediately break an important logjam in Washington — without changing the rules when it comes to legislation.”

 For more on the need for Senate rules reform, please visit www.fixthesenatenow.org

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In addition to coverage of obstruction and threats to nominations for the National Labor Relations Board, Environmental Protection Agency nominee Gina McCarty and Department of Labor Nominee Thomas E. Perez, a series of news articles focused directly on whether Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) would revisit reopening rules reform.  

See below for this week’s key developments:

Key Coverage and Analysis:

• Manu Raju, Politico: “Reid faces growing pressure to overhaul the Senate’s filibuster rules, something that is bound to increase if Obama’s nominees fail to win the 60 votes necessary to overcome threatened GOP stall tactics. Some sectors of the party were disappointed when a filibuster reform movement produced smaller changes at the start of this year. In private conversations with Democratic senators, Reid has not ruled out changing the rules mid-session — potentially via the 51-vote process known as the “nuclear option” — if the president’s nominees are not confirmed, according to several people familiar with the matter. It’s unclear how the rules would be changed, but there’s a push to prohibit filibusters for all presidential-level nominees or force senators to carry out a so-called talking filibuster, rather than simply threaten one on nominations.”

• Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times: “The threat of further Republican attempts to thwart the president’s ability to assemble his second-term cabinet has increased the likelihood of a fight over the Senate’s rules, which allow the minority party to insist on a 60-vote threshold for almost every Senate action … Democrats say that Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, in recent days has been trying to gauge whether there is sufficient support among Democrats to force a rule change that would limit the filibuster on presidential nominees. He could conceivably try to enact a rule change with a simple majority — a tactic known as “the nuclear option.” Any revisions to Senate rules usually require 67 votes, a threshold that is impossible to obtain without significant Republican support.”

• Alexander Bolton, The Hill: “Reid told a group of Democratic donors at an event hosted by venture capitalist John Doerr in San Francisco in late April that he is seriously mulling another attempt at filibuster reform, according to a person briefed on the meeting … Democrats had preferred to make major changes to Senate procedures on the first legislative day of a new Congress, which would have minimized the appearance they were changing the rules in the middle of the game. They argue, however, that nothing prevents them from changing the rules in the middle of the Congress, noting that eliminating or reforming the filibuster for executive and judicial nominees is a narrower action than reforming the filibuster rules for legislation and nominees … Democrats believe that unilateral change of procedure and Frist’s threat of using the nuclear option to advance Bush’s nominees serve as important precedents.”

Senate Voices

• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), in prepared remarks at the Senate HELP committee hearing on nominations to the NLRB: “the Board is the only place workers can go if they have been treated unfairly and denied the basic protections that the law provides … The Board is just as essential for our nation’s employers … Because this agency is absolutely critical to our country, to our economy, and to our middle class, it is deeply disappointing to see what has happened to the Board in recent years.”

• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), in an interview with the New York Times on Senate Republican efforts to block the Perez nomination: “That was just delay for delay’s sake.”

• Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), in a The Hill report: “If Senator Reid is ready to go for it [amend Senate rules], then so am I … I am frustrated about many things, not just NLRB … I was one of the original [lawmakers to say] let’s change, let’s dramatically change the filibuster rules. I am of the [Utah Sen.] Tom Udall state of thought, which is show up or shut up.”

• Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), as reported in the New York Times: “The showdown is coming …  And the leadership is very engaged in preparing how to deal with this and how to change this so advise and consent does not become an instrument of destruction.”
  
  

Outside Observers and Commentary:

• Editorial, Washington Post: “Americans elected Barack Obama president, and reelected him. He’s entitled to his Cabinet. It’s possible that Republicans will muster the 41 votes needed in the Senate to block both nominations — despite their strong qualifications and high ethical standards. If they do, Americans will be under no illusions that the GOP has led Washington to new lows of dysfunction.”

• Editorial, Los Angeles Times: “In requiring the U.S. Senate to confirm presidential appointments, the Constitution aims to ensure a second level of scrutiny of the qualifications of government officials. But Senate Republicans have hijacked the confirmation process, not only to thwart individual nominees but to undermine laws they don't agree with. If they continue in their obstructionism, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should revisit the possibility of doing away with the filibuster for nominations.”

• Jonathan Bernstein, Washington Post: “As I’ve said before, the only recourse for the majority — and recall that Democrats enjoy a 55-seat duly elected majority in the Senate — is to threaten to change the rules if Republicans continue, and then carry out that threat with majority-imposed reform to end filibusters on executive branch nominations altogether. But that would be a loss for the Senate if it had to happen. It’s not a bad thing at all to give the minority party a larger role in the process, and filibusters are part of that; but if filibusters become routine instead of used only for those things the minority objects to the strongest, then the majority will have little choice. Yes, I know that in the way Washington works, this kind of routine disruption of normal government procedures doesn’t qualify as a Scandal! But it should. And while it’s quite proper for those concerned about good government to be outraged by the IRS story, this one is a much bigger deal, and the facts of it are plain for all to see — in fact, the people responsible are openly bragging about what they’re doing. Now that’s a scandal.

• Juliet Lapidos, New York Times: Realistically, the only way Mr. Reid can get Mr. Cordray through the Senate is by changing the rules mid-session, and doing away with the 60-vote requirement to end debate on nominations — i.e. through filibuster reform. Mr. Beutler said Mr. Reid may have “alluded” to that possibility … Allusion or empty threat? Given Mr. Reid’s history of repeatedly mentioning filibuster reform and then going for a toothless gentleman’s agreement instead, the latter seems more likely.

• Juan Williams, The Hill: The attacks on ObamaCare are of a piece with the Republican strategy of using filibusters to delay and block Obama administration nominees, leaving key posts empty. A quarter of the filibusters in Senate history have been used against Obama’s nominees. The press has largely snickered at the abusive behavior on Capitol Hill. Reporters treat it as predictable rough play between polarized parties. But the Republicans have taken the fight way beyond hardball. The GOP is subverting the legitimate, Constitutional function of the government because its dislikes the liberal policies of a president who has been elected twice by the American people.

• Ian Millhiser, Think Progress: “Without federal labor law, nothing prevents employers from engaging in the most ruthless purges of unions seen in this country since before the New Deal. And all that Senate Republicans need to do to maintain this status quo is to keep filibustering President Obama’s nominees. Recently, several Senate Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) raised the idea of a second round of filibuster reform to ensure that Senate Republicans do not have the power to unilaterally obstruct nominees. If Reid cannot assemble the 51 votes he needs to enact such reforms, then every Democrat who opposes filibuster reform has likely voted to strip workers of their rights.”

Stat of the Week

“Nominees at all levels of Washington’s bureaucracy — 117 of them in all, including cabinet secretaries, judges and members of obscure oversight boards — are facing delays. Just last week, the Senate confirmed David Medine, the president’s choice to lead the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The time between his nomination and confirmation was 510 days. Every Republican voted no.”

-          Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times

Instead of advancing Cabinet nominees for a “yes or no” vote, Senate Republicans relied on unprecedented procedural tricks and partisan obstruction to delay both nominations. This week’s developments make clear that what used to be sacrosanct – namely the nominations process for Cabinet-level nominees like Perez and McCarthy – is now open season for partisan obstruction using obscure Senate rules.

Additionally, the Small Business Majority released a new poll this week showing that small business owners nationwide are tired of gridlock and obstruction in the U.S. Senate and want their lawmakers to advance and provide an “up or down” vote on nominees. According to the poll, “By a 23-point margin, the majority of small business owners (53%) believe the president’s nominations deserve a timely up or down vote from the U.S. Senate.”

If observers needed another reminder about the failure of January’s compromise Senate rules reform agreement and the larger and continued need for substantial reform to the Senate’s outdated rules, this week’s proceedings make a compelling case.

See below for key reactions and commentary from both Senators and outside observers on this week’s developments:

Senate Voices:

• Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), in a press statement: “Republicans will use any procedural roadblock or stall tactic available to deny the President qualified nominees … This type of blanket, partisan obstruction used to be unheard of. Now it has become an unacceptable pattern.

• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), as reported by the Washington Post: “Republican obstructionism and procedural tricks are preventing this body from carrying out its duties, including its obligation to consider important presidential nominations.” 

• Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in a committee room, as reported by Politico: “If we bring this nomination to the floor and there’s a request for 60 votes — which we are not going to get — I think it is time for the Democratic leadership to do what the American people want, and that is to have a majority rule in the United States Senate.”
  
  
• Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), as reported by Politico: “You know why some of us are going to be in favor of reforming the rules of the Senate? It’s because of abuses like this.”
  
  
• Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), as reported by The Hill: “I really don’t understand their [Senate GOP] view, other than being an obstructionist.”

• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), as reported by Politico: “Gina McCarthy is going to become the poster child of their [Senate GOP] obstructionism … Gina McCarthy is a woman who deserves this promotion.”

Coverage and Analysis

• Ezra Klein, Washington Post: “But that’s the problem with using norms rather than rules. Once they’re broken, they’re broken forever. We’ve broken so many norms in recent years that the Senate of today bears little resemblance to the Senate of 1983, much less the Senate of 1953. But because there was never a formal fight over a rule change, and because the changes came gradually, we didn’t notice. Now it’s too late. The norms that once protected the Senate are largely gone. And we haven’t erected new rules in their place.”
  
  
• Jonathan Bernstein, Washington Post: “That meant that despite solid Democratic majorities and solid support from those Democrats, Obama’s judicial approval statistics are basically the worse of any of the recent presidents … And remember: the losers here aren’t just the president and liberals who want to see his judges on the bench. Ordinary people who just want to get their legal matters taken care of promptly have suffered because of all the vacancies on federal courts. It’s really a disgrace. Especially those picks that were delayed for months, only to wind up getting confirmed by unanimous votes. Especially the foot-dragging on district court nominees. Just a disgrace.”

• Garrett Epps, The Atlantic: “So far, unfortunately, Obama and the Senate majority leadership have brought Nerf swords to the battle. Given what's at stake, Obama should produce nominees for the other three seats -- now, not later -- and Reid and the Democrats should announce that another Republican filibuster will prompt the so-called "nuclear option" -- a mid-session rules change to do away with filibusters on presidential nominations. It is tempting to say that their timidity means they don't deserve to win. Unfortunately, the real losers -- in NAM v. NLRB as in Noel Canning -- are America's workers, who deserve better.”

• Ross Baker, political science professor at Rutgers University, in a Bloomberg piece: “The confirmation process is increasingly turning into a hostage situation.”
  
  
• Alliance for Justice: “Just one day after using an arcane procedural maneuver to delay a committee vote on the nomination of Tom Perez to serve as Secretary of Labor, Senate Republicans have used another underhanded ploy to delay a committee vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.  …  On one level this behavior is understandable.  To Senate Republicans, one of the only things as bad as a Labor Secretary who will protect working people is an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who will protect the environment.  But the brazen nature of these committee delay tactics is shocking nonetheless.”

Poll of the Week:

“A vast 68% of respondents said that Congress was going a “poor job” at confirming nominees to lead federal agencies in a timely manner so that government can function effectively …  By a 23-point margin, the majority of small business owners (53%) believe the president’s nominations deserve a timely up or down vote from the U.S. Senate … When asked whether they supported Gina McCarthy’s nomination to head the EPA, 58% of respondents said they do based on her bipartisan experience and her experience working with business and industry leaders.”

-          Small Business Majority poll

Instead of advancing Cabinet nominees for a “yes or no” vote, Senate Republicans have relied on unprecedented procedural tricks and partisan obstruction to delay both nominations. What used to be sacrosanct – the nominations process for Cabinet-level nominees like Perez and McCarthy – is now open season for partisan obstruction using obscure Senate rules.

If observers needed another reminder about the failure of January’s compromise Senate rules reform agreement and the larger and continued need for substantial reform to the Senate’s outdated rules, this week’s proceedings make a compelling case. See below for more on this week’s unprecedented obstruction:

• Thomas Perez at the Department of Labor: As the Los Angeles Times explains, “The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to recommend the nomination of Thomas E. Perez, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, to the full Senate. But Republicans on the panel refused to allow what is usually a routine waiver of an obscure Senate rule that prohibits committees from meeting after the full Senate has been in session for two hours.” Of note, the obstructionist tactic used to delay Perez’s vote was advanced in secret, demonstrating that Senate rules are not only obscure and outdated, but also lacking in accountability and transparency.

• Gina McCarthy at the Environmental Protection Agency: Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and other Republicans on the Senate are boycotting the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) hearing vote scheduled for today on the nomination of EPA head Gina McCarthy, thereby denying the committee the necessary quorum to advance the nomination forward.  Despite the nominee’s resume of working under five Republican governors, Senator Vitter and his colleagues have issued a “record-shattering barrage of per-confirmation questions” to McCarthy, according to POLITICO.  Despite the fact that McCarthy has responded with greater than four times the previous record number of answers, Vitter and his colleagues are now using the pretext of a supposed lack of responsiveness as the rationale for their refusal to move the nominations process forward.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) captured the major takeaway from this week’s proceedings, saying yesterday, “Republican obstructionism and procedural tricks are preventing this body from carrying out its duties, including its obligation to consider important presidential nominations.” 

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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Washington, DC – The Small Business Majority today released a new poll showing that small business owners nationwide are tired of gridlock and obstruction in the U.S. Senate and want their lawmakers to advance and provide an “up or down” vote on nominees.

According to the Fix the Senate Now coalition, the poll release arrives at a time of growing frustration over Senate delays and obstruction faced by many of President Obama’s nominations to judicial, federal agency, and even cabinet level vacancies. For example, the nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gina McCarthy, has been slowed by holds and threats of continued obstruction from Senate Republicans despite a track record of bipartisanship and support from many industry leaders.

Gina McCarthy

Source: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/images/GinaMcCarthy-th.jpg

Among the key poll findings of small business owners nationwide:

• An overwhelming 68% of small business owners believe “Congress is doing a poor job at confirming nominees to lead federal government agencies in a timely manner so that government can function efficiently.”  Only a combined 7% of respondents thought Congress was doing an “excellent” or “good” job regarding nominations.

• By a 53%-30% margin, small business owners believe that the president’s nominations “deserve a timely up or down vote instead of long delays, holds and filibusters.”

• By a 58-30% margin, small business owners support nominee Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Read the polling results:  http://www.smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/clean-energy/support-for-clean-energy-standards-EPA.php

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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See below for key developments:

Member Quotes of the Week

• Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in an e-mail as reported by Talking Points Memo: It’s now clear the experiment has failed. The Senate remains broken … Senate Republicans continue to force delays — even on bills with overwhelming public support, and even on nominees widely considered well-qualified … Please join me and Democracy for America - and put yourself on record at FixTheFilibuster.com: We can’t wait any longer to make the Senate work … “The Senate is badly broken, and it’s not going to get better by wishful thinking or handshake deals … We can change this — but only if the American people insist on a Senate that works.”

Coverage/Analysis

• Editorial, Los Angeles Times: “In effect, the Senate has moved from the rare use of the filibuster to force deep consideration on matters of special significance to its routine employment, creating a de facto supermajority requirement for almost all serious legislation … Senators need to return to their rules and amend them again. If they're unwilling to abolish the filibuster, they must fashion limits that allow Americans to be represented by their Senate, not thwarted by it.”

• Michael D. Shear, New York Times: “As the White House races this week to plug holes in the cabinet, the lights remain off in essential offices across the administration. The vacancies, attributed to partisan politics and lengthy White House vetting, are slowing policy making in a capital already known for inaction, and embarrassing a president who has had more than five months since his re-election to fill many of the jobs.”
  
  
• Former Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), in an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald: “There are several reasons our government does not respond better to problems the public wishes to see addressed. Some are hard to fix. Providing majority rule in the U.S. Senate is not one of these. And until it is, by an amendment to the Senate's rules, we will see more examples like gun control, where the score is filibuster 1 and democracy 0.

• Julian Zelizer, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, in a CNN opinion piece: “The filibuster has also remained the chronic obstacle for Obama. With the constant threat of the filibuster against almost any piece of legislation, almost every bill requires a 60-vote super majority in the Senate. This makes it hard to build a coalition behind legislation and in most cases allows small factions within a party to subvert presidential proposals. Presidents usually need bipartisan support to get 60 votes, and bipartisanship is almost impossible nowadays.”

• Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post: “It's bad enough that there are 82 vacant federal judge slots around the country, a level so high that many observers have deemed it a crisis situation. But perhaps even more startling is the fact that of those 82 vacant slots, 61 of them don't even have a nominee. On its face, the absence of nominees would appear to be a sign that President Barack Obama is slacking. After all, he is responsible for nominating judges, and he did put forward fewer nominees at the end of his first term than his two predecessors. But a closer look at data on judicial nominees, and conversations with people involved in the nomination process, reveals the bigger problem is Republican senators quietly refusing to recommend potential judges in the first place.”

• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “It's no secret that Senate Republicans have one purpose in political life: total obstruction of President Obama's and Senate Democrats' agenda. It's no secret that to do so, they've ground the work of the Senate to a halt with the filibuster, blocking an unprecedented number of bills and nominations, including judicial nominations. The judiciary crisis is no secret, either: nearly 10 percent of federal judicial seats are vacant and 40 percent of those vacancies are in courts that are so overburdened with cases, they've been  designated "judicial emergencies" by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts … Out of the 61 vacancies without a nominee, 25 are in states with two Republican senators and another 14 are in states with one Democrat and one Republican. The Senate is constitutionally charged with providing both advice and consent on nominations. They're refusing to do either.”

Cartoon of the Week

-RJ Matson, Roll Call

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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• The Promise & Failure of Senate Rules Reform: At the start of this 113^th Congress, the Senate debated filibuster and rules reform. Reforms backed by the Fix the Senate Now coalition, and similar to those proposed by reform-minded Senators, such as Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), sought to protect the rights and voices of the minority party in the Senate, while curbing the massive obstruction that has brought so much legislative business to a halt.  While the ultimate compromise agreement between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stopped short of the meaningful changes we sought, the Fix the Senate Now coalition hoped we would see at least incremental improvements in the functioning of the Senate.

Unfortunately, the Senate’s record from the first four months of the 113^th Congress demonstrates that obstruction still reigns and that 60 votes are still needed for almost every order of business in the upper chamber. Unless and until more substantial Senate rules reform advances, we will still be empowering obstructionists at the expense of representative government capable of advancing popular legislation. Since Democrats took control of the upper chamber in 2007, the Senates of the 110th, 111th, and 112th Congress witnessed the three highest totals of filibusters ever recorded. Based on early returns from the 113^th Congress, things have not improved. 

This is not “politics as usual.”  Instead, it is a sustained assault on the basic functionality of the United States Senate:

• Gun Background Check Amendment & Senate Rules: Because of the threat of a filibuster, the U.S. Senate failed to pass the Manchin-Toomey amendment to expand background checks for certain types of gun sales, blocking the amendment by a 54-46 margin in mid-April. Although the amendment received a majority of the Senate’s support, it was subject to the same 60-vote threshold ordinarily reserved for ending filibusters. Requiring 60 votes to pass an amendment on an issue upon which 9-in-10 Americans agree underscored the need for Senate reform and led to outcry from the public, editorial pages, and policymakers. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said “This vote has turned me from a proponent [of abolishing the filibuster] into a revolutionary…There’s never been a bigger gap between the American public and a Senate vote.” Beverly Gage, professor of modern American political history at Yale University, wrote in the New York Times: “The voting process on gun control legislation worked, more or less, as it was supposed to work. A majority of senators voted in favor of a measure supported by a majority of the American people. The problem is that this no longer counts for much in the United States Senate…If senators want to thwart the will of a majority of the American voters, they should at least have to work for it.”

• Part of a Larger Strategy of Obstruction: Despite its public salience, the gun background check was merely the most visible example of the continued Republican strategy to subject every piece of legislation to a 60-vote threshold. This not only presents a legislative hurdle for voting at odds with most of the Senate’s long history, but also transforms the legislation itself – because 60 votes is now the de facto standard for a bill’s passage, the threat of a filibuster informs every stage of a legislative life cycle, from its original drafting to its attempted final passage. And thanks to the missed opportunity of filibuster reform, the costs of obstruction remain minimal for those intent on blocking a bill’s final passage.

• Obstruction of Nominees: The 113^th Senate is continuing the obstructionist trends of recent years. The 113^th Senate has seen the first-ever filibuster of a Secretary of Defense in the Republicans’ obstruction of Chuck Hagel’s nomination; the obstruction of Richard Cordray’s nomination to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Republican threats to obstruct nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).    

In the judicial arena, Senate Republicans again blocked the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, forcing the nomination’s withdrawal. Currently, four of the eleven seats on the DC Circuit are vacant. As the DC Circuit is the federal appeals court with jurisdiction over environmental regulations, national security issues, and voting rights cases, these vacancies are especially troubling. Overall, President Obama’s nominees for seats on federal courts of appeal “have waited an average of 148 days for their confirmation vote following the committee’s approval, more than four times longer than Mr. Bush’s nominees. For Mr. Obama’s nominees to federal district courts, the average wait time has been 102 days, compared with 35 days for Mr. Bush’s district court choices,” according to a New York Times editorial.

• A Reminder of What Could Have Been? In protesting the nominee for CIA Director, John Brennan, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) turned heads by engaging in an old-fashioned “talking filibuster” in March, speaking for approximately 13 hours. If the Senate had adopted more substantial reforms in January, Senator Paul’s version of accountable obstruction would be the norm, not the outlier.

• Moving Forward on Reform: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has threatened to re-visit rules reform at several points this year, in light of continued obstruction.  Additionally, after the failure of the Manchin-Toomey amendment, President Obama and numerous Senate Democrats railed against the dysfunction of the Senate and expressed regret for not pursuing more substantial rules reform in January.  President Obama said, “A majority of senators voted yes to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks. But by this continuing distortion of Senate rules, a minority was able to block it from moving forward. I'm going to speak plainly and honestly about what's happened here, because the American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen?” 

However, other observers have called on Senator Reid to do more than just talk about reforming the rules and actually deliver rules reform. For example, Greg Sargent wrote in the Washington Post: “Empty threats make Dems look weak and do nothing to discourage continued GOP obstructionism. If the status quo is really acceptable enough to Democratic leaders to forestall further action, they shouldn’t bother pretending otherwise. If this is the Senate we’re going to have to live with, Dems should just level with their voters on this point. No more feints and hints without real action.”

• Renewed Outside Engagement for Senate Reform: To support the push for Senate reform, dozens of organizations involved in the Fix the Senate Now coalition sent over 2.5 million emails to members on the importance of fixing the Senate, leading to 100,000 phone calls and nearly one million petition signatures delivered to Senate offices during December 2012 and January 2013. Polling at the time also showed the public’s overwhelming support for moving past the unprecedented obstruction of recent years and support for specific reform provisions such as the “talking filibuster” and streamlining the nominations process for judicial nominees.

Now, in light of the unceasing obstruction and the way Senate rules have continued to derail democracy in the 113^th Congress, Fix the Senate Now has issued a sign-on letter to Senate leadership signed by over 70 organizations, including 27 organizations new to the Fix the Senate coalition.  The letter reads, “We call on you, and all the members of the Senate, to restore fairness and honor to the nomination and confirmation process for executive and judicial nominations, and use the rules of the Senate in a constructive way that fulfills both your constitutional responsibilities and the needs of the American people in these challenging times. Or to reform those rules if a determined minority remains adamant in maintaining a veto over everything that conflicts with their radical philosophy.”

Additionally, the Fix the Senate Now coalition has launched a new petition drive to demonstrate to the Senate that the public remains engaged on the topic of Senate reform. Already, over 100,000 people have signed the petition. The petition notes, “The abuse of the filibuster to undermine policies that the minority cannot defeat through the normal legislative process is harming our democratic institutions and must not continue. We call on you, and all the members of the Senate, to restore fairness and honor to the nomination and confirmation process for executive and judicial nominations, and use the rules of the Senate in a constructive way that fulfills both your constitutional responsibilities and the needs of the American people in these challenging times. Or to reform those rules if a determined minority remains adamant in maintaining a veto over everything that conflicts with their radical philosophy.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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Quotes of the Week 

• President Obama, Washington Post: “A majority of senators voted yes to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks. But by this continuing distortion of Senate rules, a minority was able to block it from moving forward. I'm going to speak plainly and honestly about what's happened here, because the American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen?”

• Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Yale Daily News: “This vote has turned me from a proponent [of abolishing the filibuster] into a revolutionary … There’s never been a bigger gap between the American public and a Senate vote.” 

• Senator Angus King (I-ME), Press Herald: “Asked whether the votes made him question the filibuster reform negotiated earlier this year, King simply replied, "Yes."

• Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Bill Press Show: “[Obstruction impactful] On judges, on filling judicial vacancies, on getting to important legislation, like the Manchin-Toomey universal background check bill, and quite possibly on important provisions within the immigration bill. If there’s going to be improvements for refining the immigration bill it’s going to happen in committee. Because on the floor, getting anything done takes 60 [votes], and we are regretting not making changes to the filibuster.”

• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Huffington Post: "Everything needs 60 votes today. This is supposed to be a majority body."

Coverage/Analysis:

• Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Washington Post: “The gun vote failed because of the way the Senate is designed. It failed because the Senate wildly overrepresents small, rural states and, on top of that, requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass most pieces of legislation.”

• James Fallows, The Atlantic: “Since the Democrats regained majority control of the Senate six years ago, the Republicans under Mitch McConnell have applied filibuster threats (under a variety of names) at a frequency not seen before in American history. Filibusters used to be exceptional. Now they are used as blocking tactics for nearly any significant legislation or nomination. The goal of this strategy, which maximizes minority blocking power in a way not foreseen in the Constitution, has been to make the 60-vote requirement seem routine … As part of the "making it routine" strategy, the minority keeps repeating that it takes 60 votes to "pass" a bill -- and this Orwellian language-redefinition comes one step closer to fulfillment each time the press presents 60 votes as the norm for passing a law.”

• Sahil Kapur, Talking Points Memo: “Similarly, it remains unclear that Democrats have 51 votes to weaken the filibuster via the nuclear option, which they have the ability to invoke in the middle of the congressional session. The fragile emotions surrounding the issue for liberals make Democratic senators wary of sticking their necks out against it. But behind the scenes some fear that raising the cost of filibustering could come back to haunt them when Republicans retake the majority and seek to, say, gut abortion rights with 51 votes.”

• Norm Ornstein, New York Daily News: “But the combination of partisan polarization, the misuse and abuse of the filibuster to thwart majority will and the increasing and troubling skew of power in the Senate to small and unrepresentative states compared to earlier eras in American history are now outweighing that influence. New Yorkers have reason to be angry at the Senate’s failure. They have reason to be angrier at how the system is skewing against them.”

• Beverly Gage, professor of modern American political history at Yale University, New York Times: “The voting process on gun control legislation worked, more or less, as it was supposed to work. A majority of senators voted in favor of a measure supported by a majority of the American people. The problem is that this no longer counts for much in the United States Senate … Getting rid of the true filibuster once served a democratic purpose. It no longer does. If senators want to thwart the will of a majority of the American voters, they should at least have to work for it.”

• Aaron Belkin, professor of political science at San Francisco State University, New York Times: “Surely there is plenty of shame to go around. But responsibility belongs to the president and to Democratic leaders who lack the wisdom and courage to get rid of the filibuster … But if Democrats want to deliver real reform at some future point, they should get rid of the filibuster now, while they control the Senate. Otherwise, the seas will continue to rise. Dozens of Americans will die from gunshot wounds every day.”
  
  
• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “It doesn't have to be that way. If real filibuster reform had happened in January, Mitch McConnell and his merry band of nihilists would have had to stand on the Senate floor and talk for hours about why they were thwarting the will of the people, why they were thumbing their noses right in the faces of still-grieving Newtown families. If real filibuster reform had happened in January, the majority will of the people would have had at least a chance at prevailing in the Senate.”

• Bob Edgar, President and CEO of Common Cause: “Upwards of 90 percent of Americans support strengthened background checks for gun purchasers … The Senate’s answer today is a cowardly dodge behind an antiquated rule. Senators must not do the gun industry’s bidding by manipulating the rules of the chamber at the expense of the public interest … If there are senators who want to filibuster these amendments, let them come to the floor and explain themselves, and keep explaining until they convince a majority to join them or run out of things to say. Let’s have a real debate and then let’s allow the majority to work its will. That’s how the Senate – how America – is supposed to work.”

Headline of the Week

• “Democracy Weeps, Filibuster Kills Again”

-          Huffington Post

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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• President Obama, Washington Post: “A majority of senators voted yes to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks. But by this continuing distortion of Senate rules, a minority was able to block it from moving forward. I'm going to speak plainly and honestly about what's happened here, because the American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen?”

• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Huffington Post: "Everything needs 60 votes today. This is supposed to be a majority body."

• Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Yale Daily News: “This vote has turned me from a proponent [of abolishing the filibuster] into a revolutionary … There’s never been a bigger gap between the American public and a Senate vote.” 

• Senator Angus King (D-ME), Press Herald: “Asked whether the votes made him question the filibuster reform negotiated earlier this year, King simply replied, "Yes."

• Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Bill Press Show: “[Obstruction impactful] On judges, on filling judicial vacancies, on getting to important legislation, like the Manchin-Toomey universal background check bill, and quite possibly on important provisions within the immigration bill. If there’s going to be improvements for refining the immigration bill it’s going to happen in committee. Because on the floor, getting anything done takes 60 [votes], and we are regretting not making changes to the filibuster.”

Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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In reaction, the Fix the Senate Now coalition said that requiring 60 votes to pass an amendment on an issue upon which 9-in-10 Americans agree underscores the need for Senate reform. Today’s proceedings also run counter to the supposed goal of the Senate leaders’ compromise agreement:  to restore accountability and transparency to Senate debate. The following is a statement from Fix the Senate Now:

“Today’s vote is another unfortunate reminder that the U.S. Senate’s rules remain unworkable and in serious need of reform. That policies supported by 86% of Americans cannot even receive an up-or-down vote speaks to an inherent disconnect between the public’s appetite for action and the capacity of our legislative institutions ability to deliver it.

“Senators intent on blocking popular policies such as expanded background checks should be forced to hold the floor and keep at least 40 of their colleagues on the floor with them. Instead, Senate rules and procedures made opposing Manchin-Toomey essentially costless and accountability-free.

“Today’s proceedings are just the latest reminder of the missed opportunity at the start of this 113^th Congress to enact more substantial Senate rules reform and to raise the costs of obstruction in the Senate. Meaningful filibuster reform remains essential for the U.S. Senate to function properly.”

Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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Additionally, another set of comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) threatening to re-visit rules reform generated a reminder to the failure of the Senate to move forward on more substantial reform in January and led some observers to call on Senator Reid to follow up his talk of further reform with additional action.  Below are key developments from this week:

Quotes of the Week

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Nevada Public Radio: “All within the sound of my voice — including my Democratic senators and the Republican senators who I serve with — should understand that we as a body have the power on any given day to change the rules with a simple majority … I’m a very patient man … We made changes but the time will tell whether they’re big enough. I’m going to wait and build a case. If the Republicans in the Senate don’t start approving some judges, and don’t start helping get some of these nominations done, then we’re going to have to take more action.”

• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), from a speech in Brooklyn last month: “We have to fill the D.C. Circuit. They [Senate Republicans] just rejected on specious grounds a very fine New Yorker named Caitlin Halligan for the 2^nd time. And our strategy will be to nominate four more people for each of those vacancies. And if they filibuster all of them, it will give those of us who want to change the rules and not allow 60 votes to dominate the Senate, but will require a talking filibuster to prevail. So, we will fill-up the D.C. Circuit one way or another.
  
  
• Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), planned remarks during hearing of D.C. Court of Appeals Nominee, U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan: The D.C. Circuit is perhaps the most important appellate court in the nation. [...] The cases that come before it require sober consideration and legal acumen, not ideological purity. In my view, when a president submits a qualified candidate, of good character and sound legal mind, absent exceptional circumstances, that candidate is entitled to a vote.

• Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), as reported by Talking Points Memo: “My view is that the [rules change] agreement has now been broken … And that opens to the door to, as far as I’m concerned, the nuclear option.”

Coverage & Analysis

• Editorial, New York Times: “The Halligan filibuster got some Democratic senators talking about a bolder strategy, including revisiting filibuster reform and making it harder for senators to torpedo or delay nominations to judicial vacancies in their home states. Another proposal is to have Mr. Obama make simultaneous nominations to fill the four vacancies on the District of Columbia Circuit, which would force Republicans to come up with plausible reasons to oppose each of them. In the face of political paralysis, these ideas are worth embracing.”

• Greg Sargent, Washington Post: “By my count, this is at least the third time a Dem Senate leader has threatened to revisit rules reform. Yet the obstructionism continues with no action on Reid’s part. Reid needs to stop threatening to revisit the filibuster unless he actually means it. Empty threats accomplish nothing. Indeed, they’re counterproductive. They make Dems look weak. They inflate expectations among Dem base voters — and supporters who worked hard to reelect Obama and Dems to Congress — that we may soon enjoy a functional Senate.”
   
• David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy: “The path forward to fixing this problem now falls squarely on the shoulders of the Democratic leadership in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid has said filibuster reform is possible. Now is the time for him to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. The word "filibuster" does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. It is a Senate "tradition" that is being abused at the expense of America's most fundamental national interests.”

• Sahil Kapur, Talking Points Memo: “Reid has been ratcheting up the threats to weaken the filibuster with 51 votes mid-session if Republicans don’t ease up. If they filibuster Srinivasan — and they’ve offered no hints so far — Reid will face growing pressure to revisit the rules.”

• Ian Millhiser, Think Progress: “Nevertheless, there is a lesson in the 2005 fight that made Brown a federal judge that Reid should take to heart: the best chance of convincing enough Senate Republicans to break with their party and stop filibustering Obama’s judicial nominees is for Reid to first convince them that he will pull the trigger on major rules reform unless they stop hindering the confirmation process. And if Senate Republicans try to call Reid’s bluff by filibustering another nominee, Reid must show that he wasn’t bluffing.”

• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “Reid could specifically be keeping his threats limited to nominees in the hopes of bringing together another "gang" and agreement on moving nominations. That's fine, as far as it goes. But it means that no critical legislative priority—including gun safety—is going to move forward in the next two years. It also gives that much more opportunity for Republican hostage-taking, unless actually pulling the trigger on the nuclear option for nominations would lead Republicans to think Reid would be willing to take that step completely. And that is pretty good argument for moving ahead with it now.”

Stat of the Week

“Mr. Obama’s nominees for seats on federal courts of appeal, the system’s top tier below the Supreme Court, have waited an average of 148 days for their confirmation vote following the committee’s approval, more than four times longer than Mr. Bush’s nominees. For Mr. Obama’s nominees to federal district courts, the average wait time has been 102 days, compared with 35 days for Mr. Bush’s district court choices.”

-          New York Times

Contact: Candice Johnson or Kendra Marr, 202-434-1168.

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Following the recent withdrawal of Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to the D.C. Court of Appeals after encountering filibuster threats last month, U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan was nominated to fill the vacancy earlier this week. Srinivasan has already received bipartisan accolades from his colleagues, including notable endorsements from conservative former solicitors general Paul Clement, Ted Olson and Ken Starr.  However, qualifications and bipartisan credentials have not stopped Senate Republicans from past obstruction of nominees.

Quotes of the Week

• Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) at a town hall meeting: “One little objection on Monday can waste the entire week, including the weekend. Folks should have to stand up before the American people and their constituents. The silent filibuster is destroying our legislature and the paralysis has infected our nation”

• Representative Bill Pascrell Jr.  (D-NJ) in The Record: “Republicans in the Senate have spent the last year filibustering Obama’s nominee to head the CFBP, Richard Cordray, an experienced former state attorney general with a long history of protecting individuals against financial abuse. They have pledged to block any nominee unless they are allowed to change its structure and funding mechanism, which ultimately could undermine the bureau’s effectiveness.”
• White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, as reported by The Hill: "It would be shameful to not allow any one of these measures to come up to a vote … The victims of Newtown -- the 20 kids and the 6 educators who lost their lives -- deserve a vote … And that if you want to vote no, vote no. Don’t block a vote.  That’s not doing service to the memory of these kids."

Coverage & Analysis

• Editorial, New York Times: “There is no historical precedent for the number of cabinet-level nominees that Republicans have blocked or delayed in the Obama administration … There have also been several impediments to executive-branch nominees beneath the cabinet level, the most troubling being that of Richard Cordray, whom Mr. Obama has renominated to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau … Mr. Obama’s judicial nominees are also waiting for exceptionally long periods to be confirmed … Republicans clearly have no interest in dropping their favorite pastime, but Democrats could put a stop to this malicious behavior by changing the Senate rules and prohibiting, at long last, all filibusters on nominations.”

• Jonathan Bernstein, Washington Post: “There’s just no way to know which of these obstructions are real and which are simply excuses for obstruction-for-the-sake-of-obstruction, and so the majority has to shut them all down by cloture whenever possible. In other words, endless filibusters and other obstruction aren’t just bad for the government, but they’re bad for the Senate … The bottom line: Democrats would be fully justified in moving to majority-imposed rules reform on executive-branch nominations. The best solution would be simple majority cloture — preserving the right of individual senators to slow things down a bit, but making it easy for the majority to act when it wants. But one way or another, it has to end.”

• Steve Benen, MSNBC: “The National Labor Relations Board is part of the executive branch, but it can't function because a minority of the Senate won't let it, and some have suggested shutting it down altogether since the GOP will never budge or change its mind. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is also part of the executive branch, and if judging by budget size, it happens to be the federal government's largest agency. But it doesn't have -- and probably won't get --a confirmed director because the Senate minority doesn't want it to … It's no way to run a government.”

• Ian Millhiser, Think Progress: “It should also be noted that the fate of the birth control rules would likely be much brighter in the Tenth Circuit if the White House was swifter at nominating judges and if the Senate had pushed through real filibuster reform that would have prevented Senate Republican obstruction of the President’s nominees. Two seats on the Tenth Circuit are vacant, and President Obama has yet to nominate anyone to fill these seats.”
• Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo: “The rules tweaks Democrats and Republicans agreed to at the beginning of this Congress have been comically ineffective. It only took a few weeks for Democrats to start whispering about reviving filibuster reform. But talk is cheap. It’s clear that Democrats won’t go there unless they feel they have to … My hunch is that the forcing issue for Democrats will have to be something sui generis, which is why I still think the GOP’s threat to filibuster Richard Cordray’s nomination to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — and not their handling of Circuit Court nominees — is the thing to watch.”

• Bob Edgar, President and CEO of Common Cause on filibuster threats towards gun control legislation: “But as long as the rule and its 60-vote threshold to begin debate remains in place, it's easy to see why Reid (and majority leaders in both parties who preceded him) generally accepts silent filibusters. They think it doesn't make much sense to spend days talking about whether you're going to debate a bill when you know in advance you won't have to votes needed to do so … My personal bet is that the longer they talk, the more Americans are going to grasp the inherent unfairness of the 60-vote rule and the way it allows a minority to obstruct majority rule. And when that happens, some senators may just begin to reassess their positions … C'mon Sen. Reid. Lock and load. Let's disarm the filibusterers and honor majority rule.”

 Stat of the Week

 “Still, the judicial arena may offer the starkest illustration of obstructionism: The average wait for confirmation of circuit and district court nominees in Obama’s first term stretched to 227 days, from 176 days in Bush’s first term and 98 days in President Bill Clinton’s first term, according to an analysis by Russell Wheeler, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

 “During Obama’s first term, the number of appeals court vacancies rose to 17 from 14 when he took office in January, 2009, according to Wheeler’s analysis. During Bush’s first term, appeals court vacancies declined to 18 on his second inauguration from 27 when he was first sworn into office.”

Mike Dorning, Bloomberg

Quotes of the Week

• Senator Udall urges continued focus on Senate rules reform throughout the congressional calendar, at a Bipartisan Policy Center discussion: “I think throughout the Congress, we need to highlight…talk about this throughout the year. We’ve had a great example here with Hagel and Halligan. Here you had them come up in the same week, both filibustered, Rand Paul went to the floor on one and she [Halligan] – who I think was one of the best qualified people before us – languished and we don’t know where that’s going to go. I think we need to take the circumstances that we have throughout the year and highlight those and once again keep talking about rules reform and build the case.” 

• Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice on the withdrawal of Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to the DC Circuit court: “The withdrawal of this highly-qualified nominee is one more illustration of the extent to which Republicans have used unprecedented, partisan obstruction to hijack the United States Senate.  It is still another indication, as if any were needed, that Senate Democrats need to revisit Senate rules reform, and stand up to the tyranny of the minority … We are confident that President Obama now will press ahead with nominating individuals to fill all three D.C. Circuit vacancies still without nominees – and will make the fight for these nominees a top priority.”  

Coverage & Analysis

• Charlie Cook, National Journal: “In the Senate, between filibusters and the even more pernicious legislative ‘hold,’ it is little wonder why House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has come to refer to the upper chamber as “a cemetery where legislation goes to die … Thoughtful members of Congress should now consider the implications of their actions and contemplate reforms and change practices. Getting rid of the filibuster would change the nature and purpose of the Senate and should be avoided. But reforming the process, starting with getting rid of double-tracking and putting strict time limits on holds, would be a start. ” 

• Bob Franken, Nationwide Syndicated Column: “He needs to reconsider. It’s not just judgeships that have been stymied, although arguably they are a president’s most important appointments because of their lifetime tenure. The obstructionism has ranged far beyond jurisprudence. Richard Cordray’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been stuck in this labyrinth. He’s laboring as bureau head under a so-called recess appointment, but it’s not the real deal. He’s effectively constrained from imposing the strong protection he espouses against predatory manufacturers, merchants and banks. The Republicans claim his agency needs more oversight, but Democrats charge they are creating a smokescreen on behalf of their wealthy corporate patrons who find any oversight to be poison.”

• Juan Williams, The Hill: “The GOP is betting that voters will blame Democrats for the dysfunction in Congress as much as they blame the GOP. And so far, the bet is paying off, because the press is failing to call out the GOP for an extreme and nasty political strategy of demanding a super-majority of 60 votes —the votes required to break a filibuster — to get anything done. There is, however, one thing that could end the GOP blockade and shake up the ossified politics of D.C. And that is filibuster reform. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) want to require senators to come to the floor to speak during a filibuster. No more silent filibusters based on threats.”

• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “It's also a test of the Senate rules agreed to in January by way of filibuster reform. Reid could move the bill without a motion to proceed, the motion these three say they will oppose, under the new agreement by a new process that guarantees votes on two amendments for each party. With agreement on those amendments, the bill would move into consideration. A senior Democratic aide told Roll Call that Reid wouldn't rule out using this new rule and that every procedural option is on the table. The objecting senators could still filibuster final passage, however … It's a chance to see what the new rules got Reid, at least.”

• Steve Benen, MSNBC: “And since Republicans face no adverse consequences for these tactics whatsoever -- on the contrary, the GOP is rewarded for its intransigence -- Obama will nominate other qualified jurists for the bench, and Republicans will continue to reflexively block them, too … I'd like to think it's painfully obvious by now that Senate Democratic leaders made a mistake with their filibuster reform "compromise" in January, but the collapse of Halligan's nomination should serve as a powerful case study in the extent to which the status quo is untenable.”

The Costs of Obstruction

• “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democrats have so far declined opportunities to meaningfully reform Senate rules, which currently allow the minority to freely and easily stand in the way of any legislation, nominees or appointments they find objectionable, even if it means crippling an agency. And as the Cannelton miners have witnessed, a paralyzed system has a way of abetting the deep-pocketed and powerful, leaving average citizens to fend for themselves, at least while they're still alive. Three of the Cannelton miners have died while waiting for their reinstatements.”

-Dave Jamieson, Huffington Post, “Board Games: How the Collapse Of The Senate Has Crippled The NLRB And Damaged Lives” 

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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While Democratic leadership threatened to re-visit rules reform in light of the laundry-list of blocked nominations by Senate Republicans, a growing number of outside observers are calling on Senate Democrats to stop talking about real reform and start implementing it.

 Quotes of the Week

• Senator Dick Durbin (D-NY) said at a breakfast on Wednesday: “I supported Harry’s decision to try to work out a bipartisan agreement on the rules because I think it’s in the best interests of the institution, but I can tell you the abuse that we’ve seen since then is not encouraging at all … [When the moderator asked how that can be fixed, Durbin responded] “Change the rules.”

• Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said on the Senate floor Wednesday: “It is things like that that will cause the Senate to have to reassess all the rules because right now they accomplish so little … I’m disappointed.”

• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at a fundraiser on March 10: “They just rejected on specious grounds a fine New Yorker named Caitlin Halligan for the second time … Our strategy will be to nominate four more people for each of those vacancies [in the federal judicial courts]. And if they filibuster all of them, it will give those of us that want to change the rules and not allow 60 votes to dominate the Senate but require a talking-filibuster to prevail. So we will fill up the DC circuit one way or another.”

Coverage & Analysis

• Greg Sargent, Washington Post: “If Dems are not going to revisit rules reform, just make that clear already. Empty threats just risk further angering Dem base voters who are already ticked about the filibuster reform punt earlier this year. Empty threats needlessly inflate expectations that Dems are finally going to take real steps to deliver to their supporters a functional Senate, one that is at least somewhat more capable of moving forward with the agenda so many of them worked so hard for in the last campaign. Empty threats make Dems look weak and do nothing to discourage continued GOP obstructionism. If the status quo is really acceptable enough to Democratic leaders to forestall further action, they shouldn’t bother pretending otherwise. If this is the Senate we’re going to have to live with, Dems should just level with their voters on this point. No more feints and hints without real action.”

• Jonathan Bernstein, Washington Post: “One is that the press should keep in mind constantly just how radical the GOP’s filibuster-everyone policy is. Treating this level of obstruction as normal misses an incredibly important story about how the government works — or, rather, how it isn’t working … Harry Reid should be threatening party-imposed reform — right now. And Democrats should be ready to pull the trigger if unprecedented levels of obstructionism continue. After all, Democrats are supposed to care if the government actually functions. They were elected to make it work. Reid and Senate Democrats should act now, or they’ll be betraying everyone that voted for them and for President Obama’s agenda.”

• Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo: “One of the putative goals of the new rules was to limit the minority’s ability to filibuster what’s known as the motion to proceed — to stop the minority from preventing the Senate from simply debating an issue. The compromise essentially gave the majority and minority leaders more control over that choke point, but didn’t eliminate it entirely … But yet a third supposed goal of rules reform was greater transparency — preventing senators from using parliamentary procedure to hide power moves from public scrutiny. And it’s not working very well in that regard either.”

• Timothy Noah, The New Republic: “Abuse of the filibuster is part of a larger pattern of obstruction by the Republican minority ... In the past, Democrats have hesitated to push through genuine filibuster reform (or elimination) on the grounds that it would provoke a revolt from Republicans, who would then proceed to use every other means at their disposal to obstruct floor action. At this point, though, one has to ask: How on earth could the GOP be doing more to block action than it’s doing right now?”

• Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg: “But we are in the midst of something genuinely novel: an abuse of the Senate’s constitutional authority that is damaging, at the same time, all three branches of the national government.” 

• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “You don't have to think too hard to work that one out, given the GOP's track record on filibustering executive nominations under this president. The Cordray example might be the most egregious single case—they lost the legislative battle and are taking a scorched earth approach rather than accepting defeat—but taken as a whole, these filibusters reflect a broken institution. What's more, it's an institution that's been deliberately broken by the minority. There really is only one answer: Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats have to make it clear that they're willing to change Senate rules now, mid-session.”

Laundry List of Obstruction:

• Steve Benen, MSNBC: “It's been a couple of months since Senate party leaders struck a very small deal that tweaked the chamber's procedural rules, and proponents said the reforms would improve how the Senate did business. They were, we now know with certainty, complete wrong … What have we seen since? The first-ever filibuster of a cabinet nominee, a filibuster a CIA nominee, and multiple threats of a filibuster against the Labor Secretary nominee, Republicans have filibustered judicial nominees they don't like and judicial nominees they do like. GOP senators have promised to use filibusters to stop the Obama administration from enforcing the law as it relates to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to stop the president's nominee to lead the ATF and the EPA.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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On Wednesday, President Obama reportedly urged Senate Democrats during a closed-lunch meeting to address the issue of Senate Republicans repeatedly blocking his judicial nominations – after the recent ‘silent filibuster’ of DC Court of Appeals nominee Caitlin Halligan. Later, a Senate Democratic aide confirmed that Senate Democratic leaders were currently engaged in “preliminary discussions” to propose ways to counter filibusters against judicial nominees, as well as other recent forms of obstruction. On Thursday, President Obama called on Senate Republicans to ease up on blocking his judicial and executive nominations.

 Coverage & Analysis

• President Obama to Senate Republicans, as reported by Huffington Post: “President Barack Obama made a plea to Republican senators in their private meeting Thursday to ease up on their filibusters of his nominees, but he appears to have gotten a cool reception … But it seems that Republicans will not relent on bogging down nominees, and also do not agree they are obstructing Obama's picks.”

• Senior Democratic aide confirmed the White House’s recent engagement on rules reform to Huffington Post: “Two Senate Democratic sources also told HuffPost that in a meeting with Democratic senators Tuesday, Obama complained about the slow pace of nominations and suggested that the rules be changed.”

• Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker: “On the same day as Rand Paul’s celebrated filibuster against drone strikes last week, the Senate engaged in a less noticed but more typical form of delay and obstruction. A majority of the Senate voted to bring up the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but forty-one Republican Senators voted to prevent her from receiving consideration. This is the modern version of the filibuster, far more common than Paul’s thirteen-hour speech. Without sixty votes, it’s now virtually impossible to accomplish anything in the contemporary United States Senate … What, if anything, can Obama do? Given the rules of the Senate, probably not much … For example, eighteen district court nominees, all uncontroversial, are currently awaiting votes on the floor. All will be confirmed eventually, but Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, parcels out agreements to take votes just one or two judges at a time. ‘We are not hearing any opposition to the district court nominees,’ [White House counsel Kathryn] Ruemmler said. ‘The process is just too slow.’”

• Matt Viser, Boston Globe: “While the Senate’s slowness in approving judges nationwide has been noted, the practical and political impact on the courts of that holdup has received far less attention … It’s the result of a decline in decorum among senators, the willingness of the Republican minority to use tactics that were previously off-limits, and an overall rise in partisanship. The result is that Washington gridlock is resulting in docket gridlock across the country, with courts not getting the judges they need as a result of dysfunction in the Senate.”

• Ezra Klein, Washington Post: “When Senate institutionalists wax rhapsodic about the upper chamber, they talk about the filibuster’s cherished role in slowing down the majority and permitting passionate minorities to be heard. That is a valuable endeavor! It’s just not at all what the filibuster typically does. It permits passive minorities to win arguments without ever having to speak. It creates a 60-vote supermajority requirement for anything and everything.”

• Carl Hulse, New York Times: “Given the attention Mr. Paul received, the filibuster may even be enjoying resurgence as grand theater … The fight will take time. Democrats say they want to see how Republicans respond to future appeals court nominees, including another one to the District of Columbia circuit, Srikanth Srinivasan, Mr. Obama’s deputy solicitor general. But a series of filibusters against what they view as acceptable nominees could again bring to a head the push for a change in Senate rules.”

 Quotes of the Week

• Senior Democratic aide, as reported by Talking Points Memo: “The general agreement was that Republicans would only filibuster nominees in the case of extraordinary circumstances, and once again Republicans are expanding the definition of that term to make it entirely meaningless.”

• Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), USA Today interview: "There's a lot of respect for somebody who didn't just phone in a hold or an objection ... and some of the [filibuster] reforms that were proposed demanded that there be a talking filibuster."

• Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), New York Times interview: “We need to design a strategy to counter the Republicans, and we are going to need the president. Rather than putting just one up, we should put before the Senate all four and expose what is happening here.”

• Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Roll Call: “Of course, the filibuster is not about Halligan’s position on guns. It is about a clear effort to use delaying tactics to keep as many vacancies as possible on the federal courts in case the 2016 elections produce a Republican president.”

• Joan McCarter, Daily Kos: “The "facts" apparently don't encompass the unprecedented filibuster of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, or the other filibuster of John Brennan at the CIA, or the months long filibuster of any warm body the president might nominate to the CFPB, currently Richard Cordray. Or the 30 filibusters of Obama's judicial nominees in the past four years, five of which ended up permanently blocking nominees … Appeals from President Obama are the last thing that could possibly work with these guys. The only thing that will is Harry Reid going nuclear and changing Senate rules mid-session.”

Stat of the Week

• “There are currently 87 vacant seats out of 874 seats on the federal bench, continuing one of the longest periods of high vacancy rates in recent history. About a third of the vacancies are considered by the court system’s administrative agency to be ‘judicial emergencies’ either because of how long they’ve been left open or because the affected courthouses are so busy.”

-          Matt Viser, Boston Globe

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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In protesting the nominee for CIA Director, John Brennan, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) turned heads by engaging in an old-fashioned “talking filibuster,” speaking for approximately 13 hours. If the Senate had adopted more substantial reforms in January, Senator Paul’s version of accountable obstruction would be the norm, not the outlier. Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Instead of being forced to hold the floor and debate, Republicans were able to block Halligan without much effort or scrutiny.

On the heels of other obstructionist firsts this Congress – such as the first-ever filibuster of a Secretary of Defense last month – the Halligan filibuster is the latest evidence that Senate is mired in gridlock and that the compromise over Senate rules reform missed the chance to raise the costs of obstruction. In light of the continued obstruction in the Senate, a number of Senators and outside observers raising the possibility of re-opening Senate rules and filibuster reform.

Quotes of the Week

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV): “We should all reflect on what happened yesterday as we proceed with other nominations, including a number of judicial nominations. This can be a Senate were ideas are debated in full public view – and obstruction happens in full public view as well. Or it can be a Senate where a small minority obstructs from behind closed doors, without ever coming to the Senate floor.”

• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): “We have tried at the beginning of this Senate session to avoid this kind of filibuster confrontation. The last several years we have had over 400 filibusters — a record number of filibusters in the Senate … I hate to suggest this, but if this is an indication of where we’re headed, we need to revisit the rules again.”

• Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR): “I certainly share Senator Durbin’s statement that if this is going to be the Republican behavior, we’re going to have to review the agreement that was struck so recently … Unless there is a dramatic turnaround, folks will soon be concluding that there’s no intention to honor the spirit of the agreement. … We as senators have a responsibility to the American people to have this chamber function.”

Coverage & Analysis

• Carl Hulse, New York Times: “those changes have done little so far this session to curb filibusters, as evidenced by the vote on Ms. Halligan and the politically charged obstacles raised to confirmation votes on Mr. Brennan and Chuck Hagel  … The filibuster is alive and well in the Senate and, as Mr. Paul showed, may even be enjoying resurgence as grand theater … But a series of filibusters against what they [Democrats] view as acceptable nominees could quickly bring to a head the push for a change in Senate rules.

• Ezra Klein, Washington Post: “But this is why I occasionally think filibuster reform will happen in the not-too-distant future. The idea’s on the table now. And it returns every time the majority feels the minority is abusing the spirit of the last compromise. Which is pretty much all the time.”

• Dave Weigel, Slate: “‘If a person’s going to make a stand on a nomination, this is the way to do it—the way Sen. Paul is doing it,’ [Senator Jeff] Merkley said. ‘The American people can watch this and weigh in on whether he’s a hero or a bum. That’s reasonable. That honors the traditions of the Senate.’ Merkley contrasted that with the filibuster that happened right before Paul’s speech, one that got perfunctory media attention. For the third time, Democrats tried to advance the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. For the third time she got a majority of ‘aye’ votes but couldn’t break the 60-vote cloture threshold.”

• Matthew Menendez, Counsel at Brennan Center: "Ironically, at the same time that Sen. Paul was debating the limits of executive power, he and his colleagues were silently filibustering Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This court has had four vacant judgeships since 2005, and President Obama’s nominees have languished in Senate confirmation purgatory for years. The disconnect is glaring: Using a talking filibuster to demand answers about the limits of executive national security power while at the same time silently disabling the judicial branch, which is central to enforcing constitutional limits on executive authority."

Fix the Senate Now Coalition Voices

• Nan Aron, President of Alliance for Justice: “the recent agreement to ‘reform’ Senate rules really was no agreement at all, but rather a blank check for continued obstruction.  We believe the Senate majority needs to reconsider the terms of this agreement, and revisit serious rules reform.”

• Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause: “We saw this morning another glaring example of anti-democratic rule by a minority in the United States Senate … A bipartisan majority supported this nomination, but a minority barred them from approving her with another filibuster.”

• George Kohl, Senior Director for Policy and Legislation at the Communications Workers of America (CWA): "The Halligan filibuster not only destroys the intent of the rules reform compromise agreement for this Congress, but also blows up the Gang of 14 agreement from 2005 that was supposed to limit the obstruction of qualified judicial nominees…This is just the latest reminder that, instead of Senate compromises that perpetuate Senate gridlock, we need actual and substantial rules reform in the U.S. Senate."

Stat of the Week

“From 1947 to 1960 -- 7 Congresses, spanning 14 years -- the Senate held four cloture votes. This Congress has only existed for a couple of months, and it's already held five cloture votes. It's only going to get worse.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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We agree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who has called the filibuster of “qualified nominee” Chuck Hagel “tragic.” But the filibuster also illustrates the missed opportunity at the start of this 113^th Congress to enact more substantial Senate rules reform that would have raised the costs of obstruction. The Fix the Senate Now coalition supports reforms that would have forced those filibustering the Hagel nomination to hold the floor and keep 41 of their colleagues with them over the upcoming holiday weekend. 

Leading Senate reform champions and outside observers say the filibuster also provides good reason for the Senate to revisit the issue of rules reform:

• Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), in a statement: “Merely weeks after the Senate came together in a good-faith effort to fix the Senate’s problems, Senate Republicans are now engaging in the first-ever filibuster of a Secretary of Defense nominee. It is deeply disappointing that even when President Obama nominates a former conservative colleague of the GOP caucus, the minority is abusing the rules and the spirit of ‘advise and consent.’  If our step we took last month is to be successful, extraordinary stunts like today’s filibuster can’t happen.”

• Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), in the New Mexico Telegram: “The first filibuster of a Secretary of Defense in history shows the Senate very well may need further rules reform…the proposal by Senators Udall and Merkley would not have prevented this filibuster – they never intended to take away that right to debate. But under their proposal, filibustering a cabinet nominee would have required a sustained effort. If they failed to do so, a majority of the Senate would be able to move forward.”

• Greg Sargent, in the Washington Post: “…if Hagel does go down, it’s hard to imagine anything happening that makes as eloquent a case for Reid and Democrats revisiting filibuster reform than this affair will have done. Remember, the watered down filibuster reform deal Reid agreed to was at least partly premised on the idea that both sides were at least somewhat committed to ending some of the abuses that rendered the Senate dysfunctional during Obama’s first term. We now see that Republicans are making a mockery of that arrangement.”

• John Avlon, in the Daily Beast: “And the abuse of the filibuster to try to block—or at least delay—the confirmation of a secretary of defense again raises questions about filibuster reform. Because if a senator had to hold the floor and risk his bladder—like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington—while keeping at least 41 of his colleagues on the floor over Presidents’ Day weekend, my guess is that this block never would have occurred.”

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The following is a quote from George Kohl, Senior Director at CWA:

Shame on Senate Republicans for breaking with tradition and seeking to filibuster a Cabinet nominee. However, under the rules promulgated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Reid should keep the Senate in session and force the debate to continue to explain why Republicans are intent on blocking a fellow Republican nominee and decorated war veteran. Leader Reid accepted the obligation to sustain debate under these terms when he agreed to continue unchanged filibuster rules. Under broadly supported reform proposals, the burden would have been on Republicans to sustain their filibuster. Senator Reid should require those who are obstructing the nomination to fully and publicly explain why.

A real Senate reform package would have made the obstructionists hold the floor and keep 41 of their colleagues with them over a holiday weekend. Yet, Senator Levin, who is point person for this nomination via his position at the helm of the Armed Services Committee, opposed Senate rules reform and claimed that the rules already existed to keep those wishing to filibuster to hold the floor.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the Hagel nomination, the news of the impending filibuster is a reminder that the Senate rules still need real reform, that the Republicans in the Senate remain intent on breaking new ground in Senate obstruction, and that Senate Democrats who worked to scuttle more substantial reforms have forfeited their right to complain.

Contact: Candice Johnson or Chuck Porcari, CWA Communications, 202-434 1168 cjohnson@cwa-union.org or cporcari@cwa-union.org

Today, leaders and principals involved in the Fix the Senate Now coalition offered further reaction, after the Senate made the agreement official last evening:

• Nan Aron, President of Alliance for Justice: “The agreement announced yesterday inches us toward reforming the rules that have paralyzed the United States Senate, but fails to fully address the pressing need for accountability. The agreement does take a step that may ease the shortage of judges in our federal courts, a shortage that denies justice to thousands of Americans every year. We will be watching closely over the next two years to see if this agreement leads to meaningful change.”

• Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club: “Though some of these proposed changes move us in the right direction, the Senate has missed a real opportunity to clear the way for real reform and real progress for the American people. On behalf of the Sierra Club’s 2.1 million members and supporters, we will continue the fight to not just fix the Senate, but to get polluter money out of politics and protect our democracy for all citizens, so that solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems – from the climate crisis to job creation – no longer take a back seat to needless obstructionism.”

• Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA): “This deal is a missed opportunity to move forward or even ensure debate on the critical issues facing our nation. In recent years, the Senate has failed to discuss, debate, or vote on measures that affect jobs, workers' rights, health care, campaign financing, immigration, and the list goes on and on. For members of our union, and progressives throughout the nation, the failure to enact substantial reform of the senate rules almost guarantees that for two more years, there will not be effective debate, discussion or voting on even the critical issues that the Obama Administration has outlined. The changes proposed may well make the Senate more efficient when it comes to nominations, including the record number of judicial vacancies. But, the Democracy Initiative that CWA helped launch must continue at full speed. The toxic combination of senate rules, money and politics, obstacles to voting rights, and no path to citizenship for millions of immigrants all add up to continued control by the one percent, and a declining standard of living for the rest of us. Today, we are more committed than ever to building a movement for real change. Our coalition is stronger than ever. Through the work of our activists and allies, we created the opportunity for change. We will continue to work to achieve the democracy we all deserve.”

• Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause: “My friend Harry Reid, the senator from Searchlight, NV, went missing yesterday in the fight for filibuster reform. The ‘compromise’ he has reached with Sen. McConnell is actually a capitulation. It allows individual senators to continue blocking debate and action by the entire body and to do so without explaining themselves to their colleagues or the American people. This is not the Senate of debate and deliberation our founders envisioned. I invite senators who remain committed to reform to join Common Cause in our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the filibuster rule. The President does not have the power to fix this problem and the Senate clearly won’t fix it; we must turn to the judicial branch to enforce the Constitution.”

• Diana Kasdan, Counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice: “Yesterday, the Senate once again squandered its best chance this session for meaningful filibuster reform. Recent Brennan Center research documents the dramatic increase in Senate obstruction in recent years and the urgent need to curb this dysfunction. Yesterday’s agreement, while offering minor procedural changes that could expedite legislation, does nothing to alter the abuse of silent, costless, filibusters to block votes on legislation. The public’s strong support of filibuster reform showed the American people wanted, expected, and deserved more. We are encouraged by the strong leadership shown by several of the Senate's veteran and newest members, especially Senators Merkley, Udall, and Harkin, and we will continue to work with them to implement common sense reforms so the Senate can address the critical issues facing our nation.”

• Bob King, President of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW): “Our country cannot afford another two years of paralysis and inaction because of obstruction by right-wing Republicans in the Senate. Nearly 400 bills have been filibustered during Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tenure, and we cannot allow this to continue. Congress must implement President Obama’s agenda and address immigration reform, income inequality, persistent unemployment, climate change and a host of additional pressing issues. The serious challenges facing our country demand the restoration of a functioning democratic institution, and we are deeply concerned that bipartisan reforms passed by the Senate will not restore accountability and end abuse of the filibuster. We urge the Senate to enact substantive rules reform so our nation can move forward. We will continue to demand accountability and action from our elected representatives.”

And finally, all of us in the Fix the Senate Now coalition want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the courageous champions of real reform, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tom Udall (D-NM) and Tom Harkin (D-IA).  We also want to thank the Senators who stepped forward to cosponsor the more far-reaching reforms in Senate Resolution 4: Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Mark Begich (D-AK), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

 Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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While the provisions included in the likely agreement may help with streamlining certain nominations, potentially a significant step forward, the agreement avoids measures that would actually raise the costs of Senate obstruction. Neither the talking filibuster provision nor the shifting the burden provision is expected to be included in the final package. While certain details remain important and unresolved, such as potential conditions attached to the elimination of filibusters on the motion to proceed, we know enough to sum up the agreement as follows: a missed opportunity to provide meaningful filibuster reform, while advancing some decent procedural improvements.

To support the push for real reform, dozens of organizations involved in the Fix the Senate Now coalition sent over 2.5 million emails to members on the importance of fixing the Senate, leading to 100,000 phone calls and nearly one million petition signatures delivered to Senate offices. The coalition, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Americans who contacted their Senators supporting real change, views the minor reforms likely to take hold as a missed opportunity to deliver a truly functional, deliberative, and accountable U.S. Senate. However, there is no doubt the public’s demand for change helped to enact even these incremental steps forward and has put the Senate on notice that the obstruction must end.

Of particular note, the tireless advocacy of reform champions Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Tom Udall (D-NM) in combination with the engagement of coalition members strengthened the negotiating hand of Senator Reid and helped bring Senator McConnell to a compromise position – not a place Senator McConnell has frequently found himself in recent years.

We hope the Senate proves our overall skepticism wrong and that the new agreement helps the chamber embark on a productive and deliberative session – the hundreds of thousands of individuals who joined the effort for a more functional U.S. Senate deserve this much. 

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The Coalition called on the Senate to enact the most substantial package of Senate reforms possible, including what is known as the “shifting the burden” provision. This provision would require the minority to muster 41 votes to continue a filibuster, instead of forcing the majority to come up with 60 votes to end it. The final Senate reform package must raise the costs associated with Senate obstruction. Shifting the burden from the majority to break a filibuster to the minority to sustain it is one way to accomplish this fundamental goal.

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) continues in bi-partisan negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), it is clear Senator Reid has support from a majority of Senators to enact a substantial package of rules changes, if the Reid/McConnell negotiations fail. Thus far, Senator McConnell has refused to support even the minor reforms offered in negotiations. The Senate and the country cannot afford another non-binding “gentlemen’s agreement,” such as the handshake deal reached two years ago, or to settle for a weak and ineffectual proposal, like the Levin/McCain offering. Bi-partisanship must advance, not derail, reform of the U.S. Senate. Below are the key updates and implications for the final days of the Senate rules reform:

• Key Updates on Reform & the “Shifting the Burden” Provision: Ezra Klein of the Washington Post reports this morning that the reform package Senator Reid is offering to Senator McConnell includes provisions to streamline certain nominations and to eliminate the filibuster on the motion to proceed. If Senator McConnell refuses to support these minor reforms, Klein reports that Senator Reid is prepared to add a “shifting the burden” provision to the package, and to advance this more substantial package by the constitutional option. Such a reform would help raise the cost of obstruction and cut down on the unprecedented filibuster abuse of recent years.  

• Absence of “Talking Filibuster” Increases Importance of Including “Shifting the Burden”: Reports indicate that the talking filibuster provision, which forms the heart of the S. Res. 4 package of reforms introduced by reform champions Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), will not make it into the final Senate rules reform package.  As Huffington Post reports, Senator Merkley said he would continue to advocate for the talking filibuster, but noted, “Sometimes you have to settle for the silver or bronze standard, but I’m still advocating for the gold standard.”  The absence of the talking filibuster increases the necessity of including in the final reform package the shifting the burden provision, which Senator Merkley called, a “step in a positive direction.”

• About the Constitutional Option & Enacting Reforms: Senator Merkley noted yesterday, “Leader Reid has left open two paths to rules changes. While I’ve always thought that improving how the Senate works should be an area ripe for bipartisan agreement, it is clear at this point that the constitutional option would produce the strongest package and make the Senate more functional.” The Fix the Senate Now coalition agrees.  A rules change is necessary to repair a broken Senate. Unprecedented obstruction in the Senate has prevented deliberation, decreased compromise, imposed a minority veto on virtually all legislation, and created a crisis in our judiciary, as critical vacancies remain unfilled. The Senate has an opportunity to reform itself in the coming days.  It should take the opportunity to do so.

 Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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Today, in advance of this week’s activities, leaders and principals involved in Fix the Senate Now are speaking out, calling on the Senate to take advantage of the opportunity to enact real Senate reforms:

• Nan Aron, President of Alliance for Justice: “Senate Democrats soon will make a decision that will have profound consequences not just for this year or this Congress, but for decades.  If they support using the constitutional option to enact real rules reform, they can end the gridlock that has paralyzed the Senate and done incalculable harm to millions of Americans.  Yes, it is the current Republican minority that broke the Senate.  They placed their desire to undermine the presidency of Barack Obama ahead of the needs of the American people.  Now the question is, who will fix it?  If rules reform fails, then every time the nomination of a good judge is thwarted, and every time progressive legislation fails to get an up-or-down vote, responsibility will rest with those few who failed to take decisive action when they had the opportunity.”

• Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club: “The American people are sick and tired of a Washington that doesn’t work, where corporate polluters profit while progress on our most pressing problems is obstructed. Our Senators have a real opportunity to change the status quo by passing true filibuster reform, and the Sierra Club and our 2.1 million members and supporters urge them to put the best interests of American families before more obstructionism.”

• Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA): “More than a million constituents have weighed in for changes in the Senate rules. Senators must vote to end gridlock.  We cannot let this moment in history pass.  Working families cannot continue to pay the price for the Senate's inaction and its inability to debate the issues that are so important to our families and communities.” 

• Mary Kay Henry, International President of SEIU: "Meaningful debate on issues that shape the future of our country ranging from immigration reform to healthcare implementation must be discussed in the next Congress.  We must act now to ensure the Senate will be able to debate critical issues."

• Ben Jealous, President of NAACP: "The American people are losing faith in our democratic political process.  We need to act now and end silent filibusters that run rampant in the U.S. Senate.  The American people deserve more transparency and accountability and to hear a full debate on issues that have such a profound impact on their lives."

• Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law: “The U.S. Senate and Majority Leader Reid have a historic opportunity to fix the Senate. The last Congress was one of the least productive of all time. We urge Senator Reid and his colleagues to rise to the moment. They must reject yet another handshake deal and support real change in the Senate. It’s time to cut down on needless obstruction and gridlock. Fixing the filibuster is the first step in revitalizing our government.”

 Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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Outside Observers Agree Senate Needs Fixing: Experts, commentators, scholars, and coalition leaders from Fix the Senate Now are making the case that we need to seize the opportunity to reform the Senate:

•         Tom Brokaw on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC: “[T]here is a new will to take on some of the obstacles of getting anything done in the U.S. Senate and beginning with the filibuster rules, about how they change that. The minority can't hold a majority hostage every time something comes to the floor.”

•         Arkansas Democrat-Gazette op-ed by law professor Joshua Silverstein: “The modern overuse of the filibuster has nearly ground the Senate to a halt. The chamber spends so much time dealing with obstruction that it has little time left over to actually debate legislative issues or move forward on qualified judicial nominees. Currently, the Senate is considering reforms to limit abuse of the filibuster, and I encourage the support of both of our senators.”

•         Boston Review piece from Charles Fried, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Chief Counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law: “[C]oncerns over changing the rules mid-stride are not at issue when rules are modified as the first order of business in a new Senate.  Unfortunately, this false debate has created a myth that if the 113th Senate changes the rules with a majority vote, it will forever unlock the door to other rules changes by future Senates. But that door was never locked. And while the Senate has only opened that door judiciously and infrequently, it was, and is, always available.”

•         CWA President Larry Cohen interview on “Moyers and Company”: “Cohen is a leader of the Democracy Initiative, a coalition of nearly 50 progressive organizations campaigning hard to change the filibuster rules -- not to deny a minority the right to be heard, but to hold Senators accountable by bringing back the requirement that they show up in person and talk in plain sight, so we can know who’s holding democracy hostage. But time is not on their side. Unless the Senate reforms the filibuster on Tuesday, the minority wrecking crew remains in charge for the next two years.”

•         Diana Kasdan, Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, on the “Thom Hartman Show”:““We are really hopeful that what we’re going to see is the Merkley proposal or very close to it, and that has the talking filibuster. And I have to say, there is such public support for that. There is support in the Senate itself among many veteran and new Senators, but today there were nearly a million signed petitions delivered to senators saying that Americans want this kind of reform.”

•         The Hill op-ed from CWA President Cohen and Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change on link between Senate reform and passing immigration reform: “If the Senate does not pass real filibuster reform, our potential for winning meaningful change that truly addresses the dreams of millions of families will be curtailed.  There are more than 11 million lives hanging in the balance.”

Campaign Activities Engage the Public’s Voice on Behalf of Senate Reform: The Fix the Senate Now campaign ramped-up campaign activities this week, including a Day of Action in support of reform.  Activities included:

• Fix the Senate Now delivered close to one million petition signatures to 16 Senate offices as part of the Day of Action.  This included petitions with more than half a million signatures to Senate Majority Leader Reid demonstrating that the public has his back on real Senate reform.  

• The coalition has generated more than 75,000 phone contacts to Senate offices from Americans demanding real rules reform – numbers likely to grow in the wake of emails like this one  sent yesterday by 36 organizations encouraging members to call their senators. 

• A $300,000 paid media campaign launched by the Communications Workers of America (CWA)  on behalf of Senate rules reform, including this television ad, “The U.S. Senate is Broken – But We Can Fix It.” Already seen on during The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, the ads also are scheduled to run during this Sunday’s morning network news broadcasts.

• Earlier this week, key Senate reform champions Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) joined with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and the Daily Kos community on a petition in favor of real Senate reform.

• CWA also launched a petition drive via “takeover” advertising on the Huffington Post Politics site, gathering signatures and comments from Americans calling for the end of the silent filibuster.  Since its launch, the effort has generated signatures and comments from over 8,000 Americans.  The following are comments from petition signers across the country:

• Doristene, AR: “If they feel that the issue is that important, they should stand before the American people and explain why.”
• Paul, CA: “Make the Senate productive again; stop playing games.”
• Mary, DE: “We need more transparency. The silent filibuster makes it difficult to see who or what group is not allowing things to go to a vote.”
• Marcus, MT: “If [they] need to stop a bill is that great, a Senator should have to get up and tells us why, with enough conviction to stay there and keep talking.”
• Richard, NV: “The silent filibuster makes it too easy to obstruct a bill while hiding the obstructor. If a Senator has a reason to stop a bill from passing, let him state his reasons and not hide his identity.”
• Caroline, NY: “People deserve to know who is responsible for a filibuster and their reason/explanation for filibuster.”
• Kevin, NY: “The silent filibuster and the anonymous hold are both badly-abused tactics that have outlived their purpose and now serve only to impede the work of the Senate. I urge the elimination of both.”
• Mark, NY: Senators should have the courage to stand up there and express their opinion rather than hide behind a procedural shield.”
• Thomas, RI:  “Plain and simple it is undemocratic, never mind that it undermines the work of the country to be able to move forward.”

Fix the Senate Now Presence Over Inaugural Weekend: The Fix the Senate Now coalition also will make its presence felt during inaugural weekend. Efforts include Fix the Senate Now stickers being deployed at inaugural events and online advertising targeted at major inaugural hotels. Users accessing mobile applications while attending inaugural events will also see the ads.  See examples and further details here.

Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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Washington, DC – As the time for a vote on U.S. Senate rules reform draws closer, the Fix the Senate Now coalition and hundreds of thousands of Americans are making their voices heard in support of real Senate rules reform, such as the S. Res. 4 package of reforms introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). 

Writing in the Washington Post, Jonathan Bernstein notes that the ultimate outcome of the Senate reform effort will be largely dependent on whether Senators hear from outside organizations and the public in support of reform.  Through today’s Day of Action from the Fix the Senate Now coalition and allied organizations, Americans are sending a loud, clear message:  

• Nearly One Million Petition Signatures Supporting Real Reform Delivered to Senate Offices: Today, the coalition will deliver close to one million petition signatures to 16 Senate offices. Leading coalition organizations such as the AFL-CIO, Alliance for Justice, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Credo, Daily Kos, Greenpeace, Rebuild the Dream, UAW, and Working America are delivering CDs to Senators burned with signatures from their home states .  They’re also delivering a national disc featuring more than 500,000 signatures to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), urging support for S. Res. 4.

• Email & Phone Campaign into Overdrive: 36 organizations are sending out emails like this one  today encouraging phone calls to the Senate in support of substantial rules reform. Already, Senate offices have received more than 75,000 phone contacts from Americans demanding real rules reform.

• Expanded In-State Visibility, Including Petition Deliveries in Eight States: Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Credo, and Progress Maryland are among the organizations delivering petitions to ten key Senators, filled with signatures from their home states Thirteen  California organizations released a new letter to California Senators Boxer and Feinstein urging support for S. Res. 4. More than 60 New York organizations signed onto and released a letter urging Senator Chuck Schumer to help shepherd through real Senate reform, such as S. Res. 4.  Other states seeing petition drives and deliveries include Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, and Ohio.

• HuffPost Politics “Takeover” and Signature Drive: CWA also announced a “takeover” of the Huffington Post Politics section today, with ads that ask users to support efforts to “reduce global warming” or “create good jobs now” or “pass real immigration reform.” When the user tries to access the “click here” button to take action, it moves around, making it impossible to access. Eventually, the screen changes to, “Sorry, the silent filibuster makes it impossible to move forward” and then provides a link to a real petition around ending the silent filibuster and supporting rules reform.  Since its launch overnight, the effort has generated over 3,250 signatures.

Today’s actions are in addition to the more than $300,000 paid media campaign launched by CWA  on behalf of Senate rules reform, which includes this  ad, “The U.S. Senate is Broken – But We Can Fix It,” to run during this Sunday’s morning network news broadcasts and on cable throughout this week.

 Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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Legislation on a range of critical issues deserves a full hearing before the American people – not silent obstruction that prevents debate from ever taking place. Meaningful Senate reform, like the proposal championed by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Tom Udall (D-NM) — S. Res 4 — must raise the costs of obstruction in addition to expediting the legislative and confirmation processes. As the Senate rules reform effort moves closer to a likely vote next week, the Fix the Senate Now coalition and key Senators remain steadfast in their support for a real reform package, not watered down alternatives that cement much of the Senate status quo.

• Reform Champions Escalate Public Campaign for Real Senate Reform: Key Senate champions Merkley and Udall are ramping up their public efforts in support of substantial Senate reforms, alongside organizations involved in the Fix the Senate Now coalition. 

• Talking Points Memo, “As Time Runs Short, Filibuster Reformers Escalate Campaign”: “One week before filibuster reform’s do-or-die moment, its two chief proponents are escalating their campaign, enlisting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and the liberal Daily Kos community to help lead the charge… Merkley and Udall claim the Levin-McCain plan would a step backward for the cause, arguing that the minority could use amendments to poison legislation. ‘Other proposals out there don’t go far enough,’ the petition reads, ‘and won’t change the culture of obstruction that paralyzes the Senate.’”

• Huffington Post, “Filibuster Reform: Union Launches Advertising Campaign Against Silent Filibuster”: “The Communications Workers of America labor union, a lead group in the Fix the Senate Now coalition, is launching advertising aimed at shaping the final stages of the filibuster reform debate. The effort includes more than $300,000 in advertising, beginning with cable TV ads that will run throughout the week of Jan. 14. The 30-second spot, “The U.S. Senate Is Broken – But We Can Fix It,” calls on the Senate to eliminate the silent filibuster and implement “common sense” rules reforms…The ad will also air during the Jan. 20 Sunday show circuit between morning broadcasts of ABC’s ‘This Week,’ CBS’s ‘Face the Nation,’ and NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’”

Last week, the Fix the Senate Now coalition released a new sign-on letter from 46 national organizations calling on Senators of both parties to co-sponsor and support S. Res 4; lobbed thousands of phone calls to Senate offices in support of real reform; and launched a new online petition drive, gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of Senate reform.  

• Senate Needs More than “Modest” Reform: In an interview with Nevada public television last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered commentary on the status of rules reform negotiations that some observers assess as endorsing only a “modest” package of Senate reforms.

Rather than a handshake agreement that will likely cement the Senate status quo, we hope that Senator Reid can work to realize substantial and actual Senate rules changes. Senator Reid said in May 2012, “If there were ever a time when Tom Udall and Jeff Merkley were prophetic, it’s tonight.  These two young, fine senators said it was time to change the rules of the Senate, and we didn’t. They were right. The rest of us were wrong — or most of us, anyway. What a shame...If there were anything that ever needed changing in this body, it’s the filibuster rules, because it’s been abused, abused, abused.”

We agree and hope Senators Merkley and Udall are in close consultation with the Senate Majority Leader as Senator Reid puts together the final package of reforms.

Visit www.fixthesenatenow.org for more information

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• GOP Threat to Obstruct Nominations Makes Case for Senate Rules Reform: Senator Jeff Sessions and other Senate Republicans have pledged to block Obama’s executive nomination to the U.S. Treasury, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, after similar threats about other potential and named executive branch nominees. In response, a range of opinion leaders has made the argument that this may actually benefit the Senate rules and filibuster reform effort.

• In the Washington Post, Jonathan Bernstein highlighted that recent obstructionist tactics are only making further the case for filibuster reform, “All this does build the case for Senate reform. As I’ve been saying, there’s just no good reason not to change the rules to have simple majority approval of executive branch nominees.” 

• In a Slate article by Dave Weigel, Senator Jeff Merkley argued that the threats to filibuster executive branch nominations underscores the need for substantial rules reform: “It really does highlight how the intentional paralysis of the Senate, through the use of a filibuster as a party tool, has gotten out of hand…If we can turn back the clock to the Susan Rice nomination, a lot people said: ‘Oh, that's just maneuvering by Republicans to get John Kerry instead and give Scott Brown a chance to come back here.’ With Jack Lew and Chuck Hagel, it becomes so much more apparent that this wasn't a strategy aimed at one Senate seat.”  Weigel notes, “Sessions’ outrage was manna to an unexpected group of people: Democrats. For months, a group of freshman Democratic senators have been trying to nail down 51 votes to reform the filibuster. On Jan. 22, when the Senate votes on this congressional session’s rulebook, they’ll need to keep that group together. Every time a Republican threatens an Obama nominee, their job gets easier.”

• Senate Champions and Fix the Senate Now Coalition Escalate Case for Real Senate Reforms:  Earlier this week, Senators Jeff Merkley (OR), Tom Udall (NM) and Tom Harkin (IA) introduced S. Res. 4 as a package of Senate rules reforms. The proposal would help cut down on unprecedented Senate obstruction and return the Senate to its deliberative traditions by establishing a “talking filibuster;” eliminating the filibuster on motions to proceed and motions to establish a conference committee; and streamlining the nominations process by reducing post-cloture time on nominations.  The Fix the Senate Now coalition is working to build public momentum behind S. Res. 4, with the following actions this week in support of real reform:

• The Fix the Senate Now coalition released a new sign-on letter from 46 national organizations calling on Senators of both parties to co-sponsor and support S. Res 4;

• Coalition members nationwide, representing 18 organizations, made thousands of phone calls to their Senators urging them to support the S. Res 4 reform proposal; and

• The coalition launched a new online petition drive, gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of Senate reform.  

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• James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in the Detroit News: “The modern filibuster makes it far too easy for a tyrannical minority to strangle the democratic process…The Levin-McCain proposal still would allow the "silent" filibuster, where one senator quietly objects and doesn't have to take the Senate floor…That's why the Teamsters Union is supporting the proposal by Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico.” 
• San Jose Mercury News Editorial: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apparently is close to having majority support for serious changes in rules that make it too easy for the minority party, now the Republicans, to paralyze the Senate. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are not yet committed to supporting any specific plan. By the time the Senate reconvenes this month, both should be backing Reid on sensible rules that foster rather than block debate on matters of importance to Americans….The key is reviving the talking filibuster. If senators want to block a vote, they should have to stand up and talk for hours, around the clock, to delay it -- a threshold that makes the filibuster something to use sparingly for the most important or heartfelt issues, as it was for most of the nation's history.”
• Santa Fe New Mexican Editorial: “What must go by the wayside is the ability of any senator to stall appointments, or hold up necessary legislation, just because….Seek true reform, allowing the filibuster to remain only if senators will stand up and speak for their positions out loud where all can see. If need be, institute the reform with 51 votes. Otherwise, the Senate will not be able to conduct the essential business of the country — again.” 
• Battlecreek Enquirer (MI) Editorial: “The filibuster as it is used today renders the Senate majority virtually powerless to pass, or even debate, legislation. A procedure meant to temper the power of the majority has instead created a tyrannical minority whose prime objective is to ensure that nothing is accomplished….A number of reforms are on the table, among them a provision that would require lawmakers who filibuster to actually hold the floor and debate, making it more difficult for senators to hold up business…It’s time to end this abuse and the damage that it inflicts on our democracy.”
• Frank Knapp, Jr. of American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund, in The Hill: “However, there is one self-inflicted structural problem in the U.S. Senate that magnifies both these electorate and policy decisions — the filibuster… Today’s Senate filibuster rules must be changed. Instead of creating a more toxic atmosphere in the Senate, a “talking filibuster” might encourage more bi-partisan cooperation on bills and improve the productivity of the chamber. Such a rules change will create a more functioning and efficient Senate that will return it to its rightful position of influence in the legislative process.”
• Jonathan Backer of the Brennan Center for Justice, in The Hill: “Although Udall and Merkley are the public faces of filibuster reform this year, and while many of the staunchest defenders of the status quo have served long tenures, long-serving members are also on the frontlines advocating reform….There are plenty of good reasons for considered debate over how to ensure deliberative but functional democracy. But filibuster reform enjoys the support of both Senate veterans, who have witnessed the Senate’s precipitous drop in productivity, as well as frustrated new members. Skeptical senators cannot simply dismiss reform as the preoccupation of inexperienced members. Rather, they should join with their colleagues in a meaningful conversation about how to restore the Senate as a chamber where substantive decision-making can once again occur.”  

For more information visit www.fixthesenatenow.org

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• Fix the Senate Now Confident that Sen. Reid & Democrats Will Stand Firm on Real Reform: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will postpone a vote on U.S. Senate rules reform until later in January, providing Senator Reid several weeks to negotiate with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on a bi-partisan package of rules reforms. Notably, as a Senate Democratic leadership aide told Huffington Post, “While these negotiations take place, Senator Reid will preserve the option to make rule changes with a simple majority vote.” With several additional weeks to demonstrate the broad popularity of substantial Senate rules reform, the Fix the Senate Now coalition expects the Senate to coalesce around a substantial package of reforms, as Senator Reid has called for, with the knowledge that a simple majority vote will be sufficient to enact reforms, if necessary.

• Senate Reform Champions Introduce Package of Needed Reforms: Rules reform champions Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Tom Udall (D-NM) yesterday introduced S. Res 4 – a substantial package of Senate reforms that mirrors the reforms supported by the Fix the Senate Now coalition. As multiple news outlets report, the Democratic caucus has 51 votes to enact such a substantial rules reform package, should Reid and McConnell fail to reach a bi-partisan agreement. Of note, and as we explain in detail here, an alternative proposal from Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) is a recipe for continued Senate gridlock.

• Former Republican and Democratic Senators Call for Talking Filibuster & Letting the “Senate Be the Senate Again”: A new Roll Call op-ed by former Senators David L. Boren (D-OK) and former Senator John C. Danforth (R-MO) calls for substantial Senate reforms, including, “Those who want to block a bill should be required to hold the floor with a talking filibuster. Our elections are premised on accountability, and citizens deserve to know which senator is holding up the process and why that senator is doing so, even if it is within a senator’s right under the rules to speak at length about any particular piece of legislation.”  The retired Senators note, “It’s plain that the present state of affairs is untenable to the American people, and confounding to many of us who served in the chamber for so many years. Let us turn away from the brinkmanship of abused legislative procedures and return with vigor to spirited debates over policy and substance. Let the Senate be the Senate again.”

• Support Builds for Talking Filibuster: A key provision of the Merkley/Udall package of reforms is the “talking filibuster” – the provision that would add needed accountability and deliberation to the Senate. The Hill reports, “Most of the new class of Senate Democratic freshmen say filibuster reform should require senators to actually hold the floor and debate if they want to block legislation.” As Senator Merkley explained to NBC Political Director Chuck Todd on MSBNC today, “there's a lot of momentum. There is going to be a change… And unless the Republicans come to the table and say, yes, we understand, if we vote for more debate, we've got to at least have one person on the floor, making the case, then I don't think that a deal should be struck in that fashion.” 

• Kentucky Media Highlights Report on McConnell Obstruction & Campaign Donations: As Pure Politics - Channel 2 in Louisville describes, “A campaign finance group said Thursday that Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has seen a windfall of campaign contributions from industries that benefited from McConnell’s filibusters in the Senate. The Public Campaign Action Fund — a nonprofit group that backs stronger campaign finance regulation — released a report highlighting eight instances from McConnell’s political career in which a vote or a blocked vote coincided with an influx of campaign cash.”

 National & State Editorials/Columns Highlight Need for Real Senate Reforms, Not Weak Alternatives:

• New Yorker commentary by George Packer: “These Catos see themselves as steady hands trying to keep the hallowed old institution from being changed out of recognition by young barbarians like Merkley, Warren, and Tom Udall. But the changes have already happened, happen every day, and have come close to destroying the Senate. The barbarians are the ones who want to restore the institution to health. In the next few days, we’ll find out whether the U.S. Senate has the will to keep itself from going the way of the Roman original.”

•  New York Times editorial writer David Firestone’s blog post: “The need for reform should be obvious, given the unprecedented level of gridlock. But it still makes long-time Democratic Senators nervous, fearing they will lose an important privilege if their party returns to the minority in the chamber. Last month, a group of senior members, led by Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, came up with a weakened proposal that would block filibusters on motions to proceed but would not require a ‘talking filibuster’… An informal compromise would represent a huge disappointment, as Mr. Reid has reason to know, since the last ‘gentleman’s agreement’ failed.”

• Billings Gazette (MT) editorial: “The Senate has wasted nearly 1,000 hours annually in recent years by delaying debate. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., supported filibuster reform last session. He recently told The Gazette State Bureau that he is supporting a rule change to require filibustering senators to talk continuously on the floor of the Senate to block a bill and to force an actual vote rather than just invoking the 60-vote rule. …Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also should support these reforms.”

• Register-Guard (OR) editorial: “It’s time for real filibuster reform, and the Merkley-Udall proposal provides the best hope of real long-term change.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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For links to additional editorials, visit http://fixthesenatenow.org/pages/resources.

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Fix the Senate Now leaders, contact Michael Earls at 202-261-2388, media@fixthesenatenow.org

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