(PatriotWise.com) — Democrats within the Senate are preparing to overhaul the Senate filibuster if President Joe Biden secures a second term in the 2024 presidential election, which could allow them to circumvent the required 60-vote majority to enact legislation.
The filibuster has a storied history within the United States Congress. The filibuster dates back to the first congressional meeting in 1789 when Senator William Maclay claimed that Virginian legislators “talked away” to prevent a bill from becoming law. Despite the longstanding tradition of the filibuster, elected officials on both sides of the aisle have expressed a desire to remove it, as it would allow senators the opportunity to pass legislation without a Congressional majority.
The Democrats will likely target the filibuster to make passing legislation regarding federal voting and abortion rights easier. Both issues are central to President Biden’s re-election campaign and regularly make national headlines as critical concerns for members of the Democratic Party. Despite the Democratic Party’s attempt at removing the filibuster, some Democratic senators, including Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Independent-Arizona), have voted against the measure.
Although Manchin and Sinema have opposed removing the filibuster, both senators are retiring soon, raising doubts about its longevity. Democrats’ primary criticism of the filibuster is that it allows a minority within the Senate to veto bills, as a veto only requires 41 votes to take effect. Some Democratic officials have assured voters they wouldn’t support the removal of the filibuster but rather restructure the vote requirement to avoid giving a minority the power to veto meaningful legislation. One such elected official is Senator Jeff Merkley (Democratic-Oregon), who claims that following a win in 2024, the Democratic Party would have enough votes to modify the senatorial filibuster.
Merkley cited the restructuring of the filibuster as an attempt to allow the Senate to work without obstruction, which has become increasingly common due to extreme bipartisanship. Critics of the Democratic Party’s plan to restructure the filibuster cite the tradition as encouraging cooperation across party lines despite the difficulty in establishing a 60-vote threshold for legislation.
While the filibuster has a long history as a lawmaking procedure, restructuring the filibuster would only require 51 senators’ support. The Democratic Party currently maintains a thin majority of 51 to the Republican Party’s 49, meaning a filibuster restructure is almost inevitable if the Democratic Party secures additional seats in the 2024 election.
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