White House: Biden to outline filibuster changes in ‘weeks’

WASHINGTON — The White House said Friday that President Joe Biden would speak in the coming weeks about moving to “fundamentally alter” the filibuster or even eliminate the legislative roadblock that empowers the Senate minority as he aims to pass sweeping voting laws and secure the nation’s credit.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said Americans should “stay tuned” about what changes Biden would embrace, as he appears to be warming to changing the Senate rule. Biden has previously stated he was supportive of requiring that lawmakers physically hold the Senate floor to sustain a filibuster, but on Thursday suggested he could support eliminating it entirely for some issues.

In a CNN town hall, Biden said that if Republicans refuse to provide the votes necessary to raise the debt limit — as they threatened last month before backing down on the eve of a potential government default — “I think you’ll see an awful lot of Democrats being ready to say, ‘Not me. I’m not doing that again. We’re going to end the filibuster.’ ”

He predicted that eliminating the 60-vote threshold to end debate on most legislation would be “difficult” beyond the debt limit, which he called a “sacred right.”

“Voting rights is equally as consequential,” Biden added, suggesting he would be open to filibuster changes to pass the long-stalled Democratic legislation.

Biden said the negotiating process on the twin infrastructure and social benefits bills were keeping him from other legislation.

“What it’s done is prevented me from getting deeply up to my ears — which I’m going to do once this is done — in dealing with police brutality, dealing with the whole notion of: What are we going to do about voting rights,” Biden said.