Senate

Reid predicts Senate will nix legislative filibuster

by Jordain Carney - 09/04/19 3:45 PM ET

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) predicted on Wednesday that the Senate would soon nix the 60-vote legislative filibuster, arguing that the procedural hurdle had become “meaningless.”

“It’s not a question of if the filibuster’s going to be wiped out. It’s just a question of when. It’s going to happen,” Reid told reporters during a conference call ahead of CNN’s climate change forum.

Reid, who lead the Senate when Democrats nixed the same hurdle for most nominations, has recently called for the 60-vote legislative filibuster to be abolished and for 2020 White House hopefuls to support getting rid of it.

{mosads}Reid, on Wednesday, predicted that the legislative filibuster would get nixed no later than the next Congress, which runs from 2021 until January 2023.

“What kind of a country do we have, if we’re a democracy, and it takes 60 votes to pass anything?” Reid asked, adding that the legislative filibuster is “meaningless” and that its benefits are “far outweighed by the detriment.”

Progressive outside groups have seized on the 60-vote legislative filibuster as a hurdle for enacting major 2020 ideas including the the Green New Deal climate change resolution and “Medicare for All.” They’ve also called on 2020 candidates to support getting rid of the hurdle and to support other structural reforms.

But Democrats would likely need near unanimous support to nix the filibuster if they can take back the majority. They need three or four seats, depending on which party wins the White House, to gain back control of the chamber. That would likely cap a potential Democratic majority to the low 50s.

So far there aren’t the votes within the Senate Democratic Conference for getting rid of the legislative filibuster. In a potential sign of momentum for supporters, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in July that “nothing is off the table.”

President Trump has repeatedly urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to kill the filibuster, arguing that it stands in the way of conservative goals such as repealing ObamaCare.

But McConnell has said there aren’t the votes within his caucus to get rid of the 60-vote procedural hurdle, and he is personally opposed to abolishing it.

After Reid called for getting rid of the filibuster last month in a New York Times op-ed, McConnell blasted Democrats as waging an “assault” on the filibuster.

“The legislative filibuster is directly downstream from our founding tradition,” McConnell wrote, before arguing that “my Republican colleagues and I have not and will not vandalize this core tradition for short-term gain.”

Tags Chuck Schumer Donald Trump Harry Reid Mitch McConnell