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HARRIS: Supporter of Ending the Senate Filibuster Rule
In September 2019, Harris said that if she were to win the presidency, she would support abolishing the filibuster — the requirement that any proposed legislation garner 60 votes as a prerequisite to ending the Senate’s unlimited debate and bringing the bill to a simple majority vote. “[I]f they [Republicans] fail to act,” she stated, “as president of the United States, I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.”
During a speech at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in September 2022, Harris said that if Democrats could win two additional U.S. Senate seats in the upcoming November midterms, they would then have enough votes to end the “archaic” filibuster rule and pass whatever legislation her party deemed essential. “With just two more seats in the Senate, we can codify Roe v. Wade, we can put the protections of Roe in law,” Harris said. “With two more seats in the United States Senate we can pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Two more seats…. [A]s vice president, I’m also president of the Senate.… I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights. I cannot wait! Fifty-nine days [until Election Day].” (Theretofore, Democrats had been unable to eliminate the filibuster rule because 2 of their 50 senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, were committed to keeping it in place.)
BIDEN: Supporter of Ending the Senate Filibuster Rule
On October 5, 2021, President Biden said there was a “real possibility” that Senate Democrats might use their razor-thin majority to suspend the filibuster rule so they could forcibly raise the debt ceiling even with no Republican support at all.
During a June 30, 2022 press conference, Biden was asked what “specific actions” he might take in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law,” he said, “and the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes to do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way … we provide an exception for this, we require an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision.”
DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Supporter of Ending the Senate Filibuster Rule
In a January 30, 2021 interview with Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s Politics Nation, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer articulated his desire to end the Senate filibuster rule, a move that would empower his party to ram its agenda down the throat of a deeply divided nation at a time when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate by the slimmest of margins.
At a March 16, 2021 press conference, Schumer spoke about the prospect of Democrats dispensing with the Senate filibuster rule. “[W]e must get bold change,” he said. “And if our Republican friends block it, we’re going to put our heads together and figure out the best way to go. Everything’s on the table. It’s plain and simple.” (This was a stark contrast to Schumer’s 2005 assertion that if the Republicans’ then-majority were to end the filibuster rule, it “would be a doomsday for democracy,” usher in a “dictatorship,” and “make this country into a banana republic.” Schumer had similarly spoken out against ending the filibuster in April 2017.)