Democrats hoping to change way US Senate works

Democrats hoping to change way US Senate works
A group of Democrats fed up with the slow pace of the U.S. Senate are headed to Denver to rally for new rules to speed things up the 112th Congress. Democratic Activists want to see the Senate adopt rule changes suggested by Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico. The two senators want to eliminate the practice known as a "hold" in which a single senator can secretly prevent action on Legislation or nominees. They also want to alter the 60-vote requirement to end...

Dems Trying to Nuke the Filibuster
Frustration with the legislative logjam in the Senate has reached a boiling-over point, and Senate Democrats intend to test the waters this week with a possible rare and Controversial change in the chamber's governing rules that could limit the power of any individual senator to slow or stop debate on any particular nominee or piece of Legislation. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, elected in 2008, intends to offer a resolution on Wednesday, according to his spokeswoman, Marissa Padilla, that could result i...

Udalls, Bennet To Seek Filibuster Rule Change Tomorrow
Various Filibuster rules require 60 yes votes out of the body of 100 in order to pass a bill or even debate it. A single senator can also block debate of a bill or confirmation of the president's nominees. Sen. Michael Bennet called for reform of Senate rules during his election campaign last year. He is pushing for a vote Wednesday, when the new Senate convenes, to pass a new set of rules that diminish minority power. Democrats will have a 53-47 advantage in the Senate starting Wednesday. Sen...

The Case For Filibuster Reform
Democratic Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, a leading voice in the effort to reform the Filibuster, makes the case in today’s Washington Post. Udall will introduce ways to fix the system. Among the problems: Up-or-down votes on important issues have been unreasonably delayed or blocked entirely at the whim of a single senator. In the past two years alone, more than 400 House-passed bills went unnoticed by the Senate. Stalled judicial and executive nominations left more key government posts...

Democrats Plan Push to Curtail Use of Filibusters
Source: NYTimes WASHINGTON — A band of Senate Democrats signaled on Monday that it would press forward when Congress convenes this week with a proposal to curtail Filibusters and other methods of slowing the chamber’s work, but a bit of procedural sleight-of-hand could delay any floor fight over the contentious rules changes until later in January. Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, said that he intended to call for new limits on Filibusters that would require senators to be on the floo..

Democrats want changes to speed up Senate action
WASHINGTON — A band of Senate Democrats signaled Monday that it would press forward when Congress convenes this week with a proposal to curtail Filibusters and other methods of slowing the chamber's work, but a bit of procedural sleight-of-hand could delay a floor fight over the contentious rules changes until late January. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said he intended to call for new filibuster limits that would require senators to be on the floor if they seek to derail Legislation. He and o...

Congress In for a Blood Bath Over Healthcare, Debt Ceiling
On the first day of the new year, the Horned Frogs jumped over the Badgers in College Football's glory, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. My Wisconsinite family was there, seven strong in the stands, to witness the tragical triumph for Texas Christian University. How sweet a victory it would have been for those who had to fly back to the snow, broken-hearted. Justice was for the birds. On the fifth day of January--tomorrow--the new Congress officially comes to town. The sedate Senate shall stay blue,...

Filibuster by Dance Competition: A Modest Proposal for Senate Reform
Returning the U.S. Senate to a majority rule legislative chamber is apparently too radical for The New York Times and most of the Senate Democrats. Restoring the original Senate rules — which allowed a motion to move previous question thereby ending the possibility of Filibuster — is simply out of the question. There does seem to be consensus for reform that would bring back the “talking filibuster” however. In concept, the “talking filibuster” would consis...

Lamar Alexander: Confused or wily?
I noted this morning that Lamar Alexander's argument against Filibuster reform is deeply twisted, but it's really worth pondering his argument at more length. According to The New York Times, Alexander is giving a Speech this morning in which he'll say the following: "Voters who turned out in November are going to be pretty disappointed when they learn the first thing Democrats want to do is cut off the right of the people they elected to make their voices heard on the floor of the U.S. Senate...

The Good Filibuster?
In an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, I suggest that we should stop talking about the "Filibuster" as if it were one undifferentiated disgrace. We should instead view the problem through the lens of the separation of powers: Filibusters on Legislation (Article one) raise different issues from those involving nominations to the executive (two) or judicial (three) branches. But current reform efforts fail to trichotomize the problem, and as a consequence, we are ion danger of missing an extr...

Scott Gesslers agenda gets a once-over from Governing magazine
Governing magazine has an interesting piece about the agendas of newly-elected secretaries of state, including Colorado’s Scott Gessler, that asserts they have more Activist agendas than those of their predecessors. The authors cite Gessler’s statements that he plans to seek tougher voter identification laws, including a move toward mandating proof of Citizenship as a prerequisite for voting. “His predecessors’ agendas were primarily administrative — running the office effici

Education Reform Sides Shifting?
One of the more contentious pieces of Legislation passed in last year's session of the Colorado Assembly was an ambitious Education Reform bill, Senate Bill 191, the "Great Teachers and Leaders" bill. Passed in the hope that it would make the state better prepared to receive competitive "Race to the Top" federal funds, the bill split Democrats between reform-minded legislators and supporters of teachers, who didn't believe that the bill had the right targets or motivations--not to mention the di...

Rules changes and the crying game
There is perhaps no time during any given session of the House of Representatives at which the members are more open to charges of hypocrisy than when a new majority undertakes the adoption of its new rules package. That's because it's the time of the transition from the role of rules Victim/complainer to the role of rules maker. It's a time when all the evils supposedly visited upon you by the outgoing dictatorial majority suddenly prove rather attractive as instruments of your newfound power....

The history of filibuster reform
Wonkbook: Bill Daley as CoS?; House will vote on HCR Repeal Jan. 12th; a very long day for Filibuster reform The actual process is getting increasingly complicated -- the Senate's first "legislative day" might take a couple of weeks, for instance -- but Senate Democrats look to be pushing forward with their effort to reform the filibuster. Cue shock and horror. It's "a radical changing of the Senate's rules," writes Brian Darling, "a naked power grab." Democrats used much the same language in 20...

Slowing Down Congress
How can it possibly be bad to have mechanisms in place that slow down Congress? In the 111th Congress, there were 4059 bills introduced in the Senate, and 6561 bills introduced in the House - resulting in 342 laws enacted. In the 110th Congress, there were 3741 bills introduced in the Senate, and 7336 bills introduced in the House - resulting in 460 laws enacted. This all the while - gasp - the rules of the Senate require 60 votes to shut off debate before proceeding to a matter or voting on i...

Filibustering Prevents Freedom Busting
With the start of the new year, the Left is determined to make good on at least one of its New Year resolutions - going after the Senate Filibuster. With its typical arrogance, the New York Times’ lead editorial on Monday complained that the current filibuster procedure, which requires 60 votes to invoke closure and allow Legislation to proceed to a Senate vote, “produced Public Policy that we strongly opposed.” The Times wants the dwindling Democratic majority in the...

Is it the filibuster or a failure of enforcement?
On Wednesday the Senate may take up significant rules changes that would limit the ability and opportunity of individual senators, whether they are in the majority or minority parties, to block or delay consideration of a bill, amendment, or executive nomination. Various proposals have been floated namely reducing the number of votes required to invoke Cloture, prohibiting debate on the motion to proceed, and abolishing the secret hold which is an easy and lazy way of delaying a bill. On these...

Filibuster reform pretty much going as assumed
Surprise!  Despite the clamor on the Left to “reform” the Filibuster now that Democrats have lost most of their Senate majority, some Democrats have looked ahead to the next election and balked at making the majority omnipotent.  A flurry of proposals to change the rules to end or neuter the Filibuster have clogged the process, with none of them gaining a consensus.  “Reform” backers have become so desperate that they want to change the definition of a day in order t

Democrats face delays on filibuster reform
Democrats face delays in their effort to reform Senate rules to weaken the Filibuster, a leader of that effort acknowledged Monday night. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Democrats' attempt to adopt new Senate rules would wait until later in January, when they would try to execute the so-called "constitutional option" to change Senate rules with a simple majority. "Right now, the Senate Majority Leader is planning for us to come in just for a single day this Wednesday and then come back in on...

Dems Delay Senate Rules Reform
Huffington Post reports: Operatives leading the lobbying effort for Senate rules reform said Monday that they expect Democrats to delay consideration of the issue until late January in hopes of crystallizing final support for a package of fixes. It has been widely anticipated that Senate Democratic leadership would make a dramatic attempt on Wednesday, the first day of the new Congress, to revamp the use of the Filibuster. But in a brief interview with The Huffington Post, Shane Larson, the le...

Could Senate Dems Nuke the Filibuster?
Frustration with the legislative logjam in the Senate has reached a boiling-over point, and Senate Democrats intend to test the waters this week with a possible rare and Controversial change in the chamber's governing rules that could limit the power of any individual senator to slow or stop debate on any particular nominee or piece of Legislation. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, elected in 2008, intends to offer a resolution on Wednesday, according to his spokeswoman, Marissa Padilla, that could result i...

Lott, Madden on new player safety advisory panel
NEW YORK (AP) — Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott and John Madden will co-chair an NFL panel aimed at improving player safety. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the NFL Player Safety Advisory Panel on Tuesday. It will consist of former NFL players, coaches and General Managers and make recommendations to Goodell on various safety issues. Other committee members are Antonio Freeman, Patrick Kerney, Willie Lanier, Anthony Munoz, Marty Schottenheimer and Ernie Accorsi. NFL executive Ray Anderson ...

Lott, Madden on new player safety advisory panel
Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott and John Madden will co-chair an NFL panel aimed at improving player safety. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the NFL Player Safety Advisory Panel on Tuesday. It will consist of former NFL players, coaches and General Managers and make recommendations to Goodell on various safety issues. Other committee members are Antonio Freeman, Patrick Kerney, Willie Lanier, Anthony Munoz, Marty Schottenheimer and Ernie Accorsi. NFL executive Ray Anderson says Goodell wants inp...

A Better Filibuster Is Coming
Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) arrives to cast his vote for the motion to invoke Cloture on H.R 4853 (Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010), on Capitol Hill in Washington on December 13, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Remember this guy?  I’m sure you do; Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent - Vermont), after all, was the one that did the 8+ hour Filibuster of the Tax Cut deal a few weeks ago.  Whether you agree or disagree with his position, you have to admit that there was something g...

Schumer Will Get 'Stamp Of Approval' Over Rules Reform Package
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Democrat's push to revamp the rules of the chamber in the days and weeks ahead will provide one of the earliest indications of the elevated leadership role Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is playing within the party. In mid-November, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced a plan to overhaul the leadership's structure in the next Congress by giving expanded messaging responsibilities to Schumer. The New York Democrat, known for his political acumen and sharp sound bi...