Retiring Senator Chris Dodd (D–CT) gave his farewell speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, and his speech was an excellent discussion of the pitfalls of so-called “filibuster reform.” Dodd is the longest serving Senator in Connecticut history and a veteran of the Senate Rules Committee. Other left-of-center Senators should …
“Filibuster reform” is the new cause of the left. Senator Mark Udall (D–CO) has drafted up a rules change that would chip away at minority rights in the Senate by severely limiting the filibuster. This idea would narrow transparency, limit opportunities to offer amendments, and limit debate in the Senate …
The Senate is engaging in a debate today on a Wyden/Grassley Amendment to the War Supplemental spending bill that will further restrict the rights of minority members in the Senate to slow passage of expensive legislation and controversial nominees. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have an amendment …
Yesterday Thomas Geoghegan argued in The New York Times that the Senate filibuster is “at worst, unconstitutional and, at best, at odds with the founders’ intent.” However, the most rudimentary reading of the Constitution suggests that the Founders wanted the passage of legislation to be exceedingly difficult in order to …
