He told George Stephanopoulos that he wants to return to the “talking filibuster.”
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he supports the change in the Senate filibuster rule to require senators to speak on the floor to introduce a bill, the first time he has approved reform of the procedure the White House has insisted on for weeks that the president opposes removal.
The comments, made in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, could encourage reform advocates who argue that the legislative filibuster hampers Biden’s agenda in the tightly divided Senate.
“Won’t you have to choose between preserving the filibuster and moving forward on your agenda?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden in his interview outside of Philadelphia.
“Yeah, but here’s the choice: I don’t think you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it the way it was when I came to the Senate in the old days,” Biden said. “You had to stand up and rule on the ground. You had to keep talking.”
“So, are you for this reform? Are you to get the filibuster back talking?” Stephanopulos asked.
“I’m. That’s what it was supposed to be,” Biden said.
“It’s getting to the point where, as you know, democracy is hard to work with,” Biden told Stephanopoulos.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jan Psaki insisted that Biden preferred “not to make changes” to the filibuster but that he was “open to listening” to ideas on the subject.
Currently, 60 votes are needed in the Senate to end the debate and pass legislation, a threshold that requires Democrats to have the support of at least 10 Republicans to advance laws through the Senate 50-50.
Many Democrats, concerned that the filibuster may keep major issues on the agenda such as voting rights and immigration reform, have pressured Democrats to use their majority to eliminate the filibuster or change the rules. A proposal Biden referred to on Tuesday would return to the “talking filibuster” used decades ago that forced senators to speak on the Senate floor to uphold a challenge to the legislation.
While moderate Democrat Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Have opposed changing the filibuster, Manchin recently raised the possibility of making the tactic more “painful” for Republicans, a comment confiscated for defense reform.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Warned Democrats on Tuesday not to change the legislative filibuster.
“This chaos would not open an express lane for liberal change. It would not open an express lane for Biden’s presidency to access the history books,” he said. “The Senate would look more like an accumulation of a hundred cars. Nothing moving.”
McConnell said Republicans would take advantage of any rule change the next time they retain a Senate majority.
“This pendulum would oscillate in both directions, strongly,” he said.
Watch more of the interview with President Joe Biden on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, March 17 at 7 a.m. EDT.