Democrat Joe Manchin opposes weakening the filibuster

Senator Joe Manchin said he will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster under any circumstances, likely leading to a narrow effort to reduce barriers to approving parts of President Joe Biden’s agenda in Congress with only Democratic votes.

“The time has come to end these political games and to establish a new era of bipartisanship in which we find common ground on the major political debates facing our nation,” the moderate West Virginia Democrat wrote in a published post. at The Washington Post Wednesday.

The filibuster generally requires legislation to get 60 votes in the Senate, which is evenly distributed among Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have been looking to get rid of or change the filibuster – which former President Barack Obama has called a Jim Crow relic – to pass very comprehensive electoral reform legislation.

Manchin has repeatedly said he opposes the removal of the filibuster, but recently appeared open to reforms, such as forcing senators invoking a filibuster to speak at length in the Senate floor.

Biden, another supporter of the filibuster, had expressed his openness to the idea, saying it was like “it used to be when I first came to the Senate.”

Manchin’s outright rejection of any filibuster reform came a day after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Another moderate, told the Wall Street Journal that he opposed efforts to ease the rules.

Manchin, who has excessive influence as a result of the uniform division in the upper house of Congress, also said he opposed the regular use of budget conciliation, a mechanism that allows Congress to pass certain bills with the absolute majority.

Covid’s $ 1.9 trillion relief bill was passed through reconciliation, and Democrats have prepared to use the process to secure approval of Biden’s infrastructure plan. $ 2 trillion. Manchin has said he opposes corporate tax hikes included in the bill.

Manchin wrote that if the filibuster was eliminated or budget reconciliation became the norm, a “new and dangerous precedent would be set for passing partisan, radical legislation that would change the direction of our nation whenever there is a change. in political control “.

“The consequences will be profound: our nation may not see a stable government again,” Manchin wrote.

“I just don’t think budget reconciliation should replace the usual order in the Senate. How good is that for the future of this nation?” Manchin added. “Senate Democrats must avoid the temptation to abandon our Republican counterparts on important national issues. Republicans, however, have a responsibility to stop saying no and to engage in a real engagement with Democrats.” .

Manchin said his opposition to weakening the filibuster was related to his portrayal of West Virginia, a small state that exerts a disproportionate influence in the Senate for its population.

“It’s no coincidence that a state as small as West Virginia has the same number of senators as California or Texas. It goes to the heart of what representative government is,” Manchin wrote.

Manchin opposed the Democrat-led effort in 2013 to eliminate the filibuster for cabinet-level candidates and federal judges and the Republican-led effort in 2017 to eliminate the Supreme Court candidates. Both efforts were successful.

“Every time the Senate has voted to weaken the filibuster in the last decade, political dysfunction and blockade have intensified,” Manchin wrote. “The political games being played in the halls of Congress only feed the hateful rhetoric and violence we see across our country right now.”