Explainer: Expect to hear the F-word a lot in the U.S. Senate next year

Republican majorities in both chambers of the US Congress will ensure that Donald Trump the power to achieve many of his goals if he is sworn in as president, but if he is blocked, expect to hear the F-word.

That’s “filibuster,” the Senate rule that requires 60 of the House’s 100 members to agree to pass most legislation. President-elect Trump’s party will be able to get around it on some issues — such as cutting taxes — but attempts to rewrite immigration laws or abolish government departments will be met with resistance.

Here’s an explanation of the filibuster:

WHAT IS THE FILIBUSTER?

“Filibuster” means delaying action on a bill or other issue through discussion.

The Senate filibuster first captured the American imagination in Frank Capra’s film ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” from 1939, when Jimmy Stewart’s character spoke for more than a day before collapsing from exhaustion.

The U.S. Constitution does not contain a filibuster provision. But by the nineteenth century, long speeches were a common delaying tactic in the Senate. In 1917, senators agreed that a two-thirds majority could end debate. That threshold proved difficult to reach and in 1975 the Senate lowered the threshold to the current three-fifths, 60 votes.

Under Senate rules, a filibuster can only be stopped if 60 senators vote to end debate in a process called cloture. Neither party has achieved a 60-member majority since 1979, and the majority of Republicans will fall far short of that mark.

ARE FILIBUSTERS A COMMON TACTIC?

Yes, more and more. In 2021-2022, a record 336 cloture motions were filed in the Senate to break filibusters. Compare that to 68 filed in 2005-2006 and just one in 1959-1960. The number of filibusters has fallen during the current two-year session, with 238 filed between 2023 and September 2024, when Congress withdrew.

WHAT IS THE LONGEST FILIBUSTER SPEECH?

Groups of senators have banded together to delay work on individual bills for days or weeks. But the longest continuous speech by a single senator lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957 by Senator Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who opposed civil rights legislation.

More recently, it has become rare for a single senator to speak and talk and talk and talk. Instead, a senator or group of senators announces that they will try to prevent passage of a bill through a filibuster. But they come and go from the room amid short speeches or “quorum calls,” with nothing happening on the floor other than a clerk taking the roll.

WHAT HAVE DEMOCRATS TRIED TO DO?

Frustrated Democrats have come up with numerous ideas to change the filibuster rule. One proposal was to require senators who oppose a bill to remain on site and actually debate it.

In early 2022, the Senate defeated a Democratic effort to change the rules and require a “talking filibuster” amid a push for comprehensive voting rights legislation.

Two senators who were Democrats at the time voted with all Republicans to defeat that rule change.

Democrats have also threatened to suspend the filibuster to pass a bill guaranteeing abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

WHAT DO THE REPUBLICANS WANT TO DO?

When he was president for four years starting in 2017, Trump feared that he and his fellow Republicans would be blamed by voters if they failed to implement their agenda because of Democratic opposition. But then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell balked at the idea of ​​changing the filibuster rule on legislation and was supported by his base.

However, McConnell did end the filibuster against Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, a few years after Democrats banned it for all other presidential nominations requiring Senate confirmation.

McConnell, 82, will step down from his leadership role next year. Republican senators chose Sen. John Thune to succeed him, and Thune said he would defend the practice. It was unclear whether Trump would try to influence Republican senators in the other direction.

DOES THE HOUSE HAVE A FILIBUSTER RULE?

No. With 435 members, the U.S. House of Representatives has strict limits on debate, making it easier for the majority party to pass legislation.

Defenders of the Senate filibuster argue that it is the “dish that cools the unruly House” and gives more voice to minority views. And that, they claim, is what makes the Senate “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” a claim that many senators now scoff at in this increasingly partisan and sometimes withered chamber.

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