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A litmus test for 2020 hopefuls
Liberals urge Dems to dump legislative filibuster in Senate
WASHINGTON — The newest pressure point in the Democratic presidential primary isn’t health care or climate change — though it could make or break future progress on those issues. It’s an overhaul of arcane Senate rules.
Some prominent liberals are urging Democratic presidential candidates to consider eliminating the filibuster for legislation. Such a move would allow bills to pass through the Senate with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes required now for many measures. The threshold has already been removed — with much controversy — for Supreme Court and most presidential nominees.
Though the effort is decidedly wonky, scrapping the filibuster would amount to a seismic change in Washington.
Even if Democrats regain control of the Senate next year, the ambitious proposals the party’s presidential candidates are backing, such as “Medicare for all,” would struggle to win passage if 60 votes are required.
Eliminating that barrier, some liberals argue, would clear the path for a new Democratic president to enact some of the most progressive legislation in a generation.
“We need folks who are coming into office saying ‘I’m going to use every tool at my disposal to stand up for progressive values.’ ” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the liberal activist group Indivisible. If Democrats control all of Congress and the White House in 2021, Levin added, they would ideally aim high for “big democratic reforms” as well as action on health care and climate change. “They’re only going to be able to do that if they eliminate the filibuster.”
Still, the 60-vote requirement has allowed Democrats to block some of President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities, such as his long-promised border wall.
Some White House hopefuls are reluctant to get rid of the rule.
“I’m conflicted. I see arguments on both sides,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
“I think there are ways of getting things through Congress with the legislative filibuster still in place,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told reporters. “It takes a chief executive that knows what she’s doing or what he’s doing.”
Harris and Brown signed a bipartisan defense of the legislative filibuster in 2017.
The move was organized after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., changed the rules to allow Supreme Court confirmations with a simple majority vote.
Other Democratic presidential contenders who endorsed keeping the legislative filibuster in place then were Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
Two other senators vying in the Democratic primary didn’t sign on: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
And they’re taking different tacks, with Warren recently telling MSNBC that “everything stays on the table” when it comes to changing the filibuster if Republicans attempt to obstruct a future Democratic chief executive, while Sanders told CBS that “I’m not crazy about getting rid of the filibuster.”
Frustrated by his inability to move big legislation through Congress, Trump has pressed McConnell to kill the filibuster, something the Kentucky Republican has rebuffed.
For some on the left — particularly those who recall former President Barack Obama’s struggles as McConnell blocked progress on his bills and nominees — promising voters big action on liberal policies without an answer for GOP filibusters amounts to malpractice by Democratic presidential candidates.
Ending the filibuster is “one of the few things that will have the most impact on whether or not a Democratic president is able to achieve their agenda,” said Adam Jentleson, a veteran senior aide to ex-Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “This is the decoder ring for whether candidates are serious about what they’re proposing or not.”
Reid’s 2013 decision to nix the filibuster for most executive branch nominees remains a polarizing one for many Democrats.
Klobuchar, for one, told NBC News last year that she believes the move was a mistake. But as liberals gain influence and younger activists intensify their pressure on Democratic leaders, candidates are likely to keep getting pressed about their stances on the future of the filibuster.