President Biden says he supports changing the Senate filibuster rules

“I don’t think you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do what it used to be when I first came to the Senate,” Biden said in an interview with ABC News. “You had to stand up and rule on the ground, you had to keep talking.”

Asked if he wanted to support the recovery of the talking filibuster, Biden, an idea backed by a growing number of Democratic senators, replied: “I am. That was the way it was. “

Biden’s statements came the same day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to curb the Senate if Democrats make any changes to the filibuster.

“This chaos would not open an express path to liberal change. It would not open an express lane for Biden’s presidency to access the history books, ”Mr. McConnell (R., Ky.) Said in a speech Tuesday.“ The Senate would look more like an accumulation of a hundred cars. Nothing in motion ”.

Democrats are at least two of the 51 timid votes needed to end the legislative filibuster, a step that would clear the way for them to pass general legislation on voting rights, immigration, gun regulations and other measures that are unlikely to happen. attract bipartisan support.

Alternatively, Senate Democrats are exploring a return to traditional talking filibusters, such as the famous Jimmy Stewart portrayed in the 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” The idea came up recently by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat who, like Mr. Biden, has said he is opposed to the total abolition of the filibuster, but open to revisions.

Current senators can introduce a bill without speaking at all. They don’t even have to show up at the chamber. An impetus is now being built to change the rules, at the very least, to make filibusterism more difficult.

“Senators don’t have to stop for a minute to close the Senate,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday. “All they have to do is threaten him, call him on the phone, catch a plane, go home from Washington and come back on Monday to see how his filibuster is doing. ‘Sr. Smith called him. It wouldn’t have been a great movie, would it? ”

Democrats blame a 1975 rule change that allowed absent senators to count against the 60 votes needed to end the debate on a bill and move on to the final passage. They say it made filibusters less expensive for the minority.

“What’s the pain?” asked Mr. Manchin on the Fox News Channel last week.

Mr. Manchin’s support for restoring the talking filibuster is not new. In 2011, he was one of 46 Democrats who voted in favor of a proposal by Senator Jeff Merkley (D., Ore) that would have forced senators to take the floor and make comments to block legislation. No Republican voted and the measure failed.

Had it been passed, it would have allowed the Senate to enter an extended debate period if a simple majority of senators voted to end the debate on a bill. Senators who want to block the legislation should make sure that at least one of them is presenting arguments at the floor or that a majority can pass the final passage with 51 votes.

Merkley said she is not married to her 2011 approach. “There are many nuances to different ways of doing it,” he said. “And I’m not willing to say it in any way.”

In a Senate split between 50 and 50 between the two sides, the filibuster’s fate is key to much of President Biden’s agenda, including his promise to raise the minimum wage and sign a major rights bill. vote. His $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package went through only Democratic votes in the Senate through an accelerated process known as reconciliation, which is limited to budget-related laws.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Tuesday before it was Mr. Biden’s preference not to make changes to the filibuster. But he said he remained open to hearing ideas about the discussions that were taking place in Congress.

After Democrats gained control of the Senate in January, Mr. Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) Publicly reiterated their opposition to the abolition of the filibuster, but neither senator ruled out modifying it. . Earlier this month, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada joined Mr. Manchin’s approval of the talking filibusters, as did Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.).

“This is not a theoretical debate for us right now, given what is happening in Georgia in terms of voting rights,” said Warnock, who noted state bills that would add requirements or restrictions to voting. by mail and would reduce early voting hours. “I’m willing to consider filibuster talking, as well as other options,” he said.

Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent arguing with Democrats, said it was worth discussing the talking filibusters, along with another idea cited by Mr. Manchin that would require 41 senators present to continue the debate, instead of the required 60 to end the debate according to the rules in force. King has been a proponent of the filibuster for a long time and his preference is no change. But he said his vote depends on Mr. McConnell. “If you take the position that ‘we will obstruct everything,’ it may make me reconsider my position.”

McConnell told reporters last week that he wants to maintain the status quo of the filibuster. In his speech on Tuesday, he added that Democrats who pressure Mr. Manchin and Sinema “not only advocate for some change in procedure. They advocate a radically less stable and less consensual system of government.” He warned that Republicans could refuse. to run, denying Democrats the quorum to conduct any business in the Senate.

On Tuesday, when asked by reporters if he could support the changes to the filibuster, McConnell said, “It’s not broken and it doesn’t need to be fixed.”

But some Republicans say they are willing to end the laws, if that is what is needed to preserve the 60-vote threshold.

“This is what I would encourage Senator Manchin to do: stick to guns,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., SC). “If you have to give up something, if we have to talk, I’m fine.”

Senator Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) Said talking filibusters are common sense. “If you care passionately and hard enough about a problem, you should be willing to use the filibuster as originally intended,” Moran said.

“I’m absolutely open to that and it resonates with me,” said Senator Todd Young (R., Ind.). Still, Mr. Young is reluctant to see change happen when Democrats are in power. “I think this rewards very bad and cynical behavior,” he said.

Hitting the Senate should not be easy, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.).

“We have the cribs again,” Blumenthal said, referring to when senators used to take a nap in makeshift beds in the Senate during filibuster hours. “Let’s go back to the debates all night if that’s what they want to do, to block a measure that is deeply necessary and popular. Let them act on the ground and let the Americans see them for what they are. ”

—Ken Thomas contributed to this article.

Write to Lindsay Wise at [email protected] and Siobhan Hughes at [email protected]