{"id":8196,"date":"2026-07-27T21:06:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:06:55","slug":"the-debate-over-ending-the-filibuster-in-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8196","title":{"rendered":"The debate over ending the filibuster in the Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every few years, the party in power seriously considers getting rid of a centuries-old rule requiring a supermajority to pass legislation in the Senate. (Oliver Contreras\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

With the midterm elections nearing, President Donald Trump is renewing pressure on Senate Republicans to get rid of the filibuster.<\/p>

Read more Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow new limits on mail ballots<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Thune should not allow the United States Senate to \u2018leave town\u2019 until it passes The Save America Act,\u201d Trump wrote on social media Monday, referring to his voting restrictions bill, \u201cor, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only a few years ago that Democrats were in control of the Senate and seriously considering getting rid of the filibuster. Some experts think it\u2019s only a matter of time before this centuries-old Senate procedure intended to delay or prevent a vote on legislation <\/b>ends.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

The filibuster allows the minority party to block legislation in the Senate. Its existence is a central difference between the House and the Senate. In the House, whichever party has the majority can pass pretty much whatever it wants with a majority vote. In the Senate, lawmakers have to find common ground, because most legislation requires 60 votes to advance, and rarely does one party have 60 out of 100 senators.<\/p>\n

Right now, Republicans have 53 votes. That\u2019s not close to what they\u2019d need to pass Trump\u2019s controversial Save America Act, which would mandate strict ID laws for voting and proof of citizenship to register to vote or after a name change. All Democrats oppose this legislation. So even though it passed the Republican-controlled House, it\u2019s stuck in the Republican-controlled Senate because of the filibuster.<\/p>\n

Legislation is the last big area of Senate business to which the filibuster applies. It used to apply to judicial and political nominations, but Democrats voted to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations except for Supreme Court justices more than a decade ago, and Republicans eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court justices a few years later.<\/p>\n

Former president Joe Biden was a big supporter of the filibuster until he became president. He called for suspending the filibuster to let Democrats pass nationwide abortion protections and legislation that Democrats said would protect people\u2019s voting rights in the wake of Trump\u2019s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of those defining moments,\u201d Biden said of voting rights and getting rid of the filibuster. \u201cIt really is. People are going to be judged where were they before and where they after the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing filibuster rules requires a majority vote. Democrats came two votes short of being able to do that, with then-Sens. Joe Manchin III (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) voting against. \u201cThe filibuster is the only thing that prevents us from total insanity,\u201d Manchin said at the time.<\/p>\n

Republicans don\u2019t have the votes for it, either. \u201cIt\u2019s just a reality,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The allure of getting rid of the filibuster for the majority is obvious: You can pass whatever your party agrees on and disregard the other side.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an argument that the filibuster is a blockade to good governance and even separation of powers. It was used in the 1960s to block civil rights legislation and more recently to block raising the debt ceiling, risking a recession.<\/i><\/p>

Read more Tim Walz is keeping silent on Minnesota primary. Gwen Walz is not.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn practice,\u201d conservative commentator George F. Will argued<\/a> in The Washington Post earlier this year, \u201cthe filibuster has prevented healthy politics. \u2026 Into this void has flowed presidential power.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the appeal of the filibuster is immediately clear to the senators in the minority: It can be the only way to stop proposals they vehemently oppose from becoming law.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans could fundamentally change the entire government and country with a simple majority vote,\u201d Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) wrote in The Post<\/a> this week. He said he was wrong to support getting rid of the filibuster when Biden was in power and Democrats had control of Congress. \u201cThe one thing that has stopped many unpopular policies since the beginning of 2025 isn\u2019t the Democrats \u2014 it is the filibuster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some argue it promotes compromise. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) strongly opposes getting rid of the filibuster. \u201cThe filibuster is a big, fancy Washington word,\u201d he said several years ago, \u201cbut it really just refers to a historic Senate rule that leads to more bipartisanship and consensus when making federal laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Senate Republicans have proposed keeping it but forcing the minority to go back to old-school rules: actually holding the Senate floor with nonstop talking.<\/p>\n

Democrats had the idea to lower the threshold for advancing legislation from 60 votes to 55. There\u2019s precedent for that: Decades ago, the threshold was 67 votes, until it was changed in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Another idea is to eliminate the filibuster at certain times, like for a few months at the start of a new Congress.<\/p>\n

But it may be only a matter of time before the Senate gets rid of the filibuster for legislation, Sarah Binder, a parliamentary expert with the Brookings Institution, said when Democrats were considering this a few years ago.<\/p>\n

She noted that the Senate hasn\u2019t looked back from eliminating the filibuster for presidential appointments. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amber Phillips<\/i><\/a> writes <\/i>The 5-Minute Fix newsletter<\/i><\/a>, a quick analysis of the day\u2019s biggest political news. <\/i>Send her an email here<\/i><\/a>, or <\/i>ask a question<\/i><\/a> that could be featured in an upcoming newsletter. <\/i><\/p>

Read more McConnell not medically cleared to leave rehab yet, Capitol physician says<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the Republicans\u2019 turn to seriously consider this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe debate over ending the filibuster in the Senate - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8196\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The debate over ending the filibuster in the Senate - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s the Republicans\u2019 turn to seriously consider this.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8196\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-27T21:06:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/62fc50a220c18601737d6ca0a9b897fd-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1846\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"The debate over ending the filibuster in the Senate\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-27T21:06:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196\"},\"wordCount\":980,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/994b66f4962e0082fd0a5272057f9650-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196\",\"name\":\"The debate over ending the filibuster in the Senate - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/994b66f4962e0082fd0a5272057f9650-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-27T21:06:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8196#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/994b66f4962e0082fd0a5272057f9650-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/994b66f4962e0082fd0a5272057f9650-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1846,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 22: Capitol dome is seen behind a statue on Capitol Hill on the first day of a partial federal government shutdown on December 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. 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