What is a filibuster? The Merriam Webster dictionary website defines filibuster as "the use of extreme dilatory tactics (as by making long speeches) in an attempt to delay or prevent action especially in a legislative assembly." Filibuster is defined on the U.S. Senate website as the "action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question." The word comes from a Dutch term for freebooter and the Spanish “filibusteros,” describing pirates raiding Caribbean islands, the Senate website explains.
How is a filibuster ended? Filibuster is ended with the cloture rule.
Cloture is the "closing or limitation of debate in a legislative body especially by calling for a vote," according to Merriam Webster online.
In the U.S. Senate, at least 16 senators must sign a cloture motion stating that in keeping with the rules of the Senate, they move to bring debate to a close, according to the Congressional Research Service.
So, is that it? No.
"The cloture motion then lies over until the second calendar day on which the Senate is in session," the Congressional Research Service explains. "For example, if the motion is filed on Monday, it lies over until Wednesday, assuming the Senate is in session daily. If the motion is filed on Friday, it lies over until Tuesday unless the Senate was in session on Saturday or Sunday."
OK. So you've waited a day. Now what?
Once the senators finally get to the motion,"it requires the votes of at least three-fifths of all Senators (normally 60 votes) to invoke cloture," according to the Congressional Research Service.
Have exceptions to the filibuster been made?
Indeed. The Brennan Center points out, "In 2013, Democrats altered filibuster rules so that only a simple majority is required to end debate on nominees to lower courts and administration positions. In 2017, Republicans extended that change to Supreme Court nominations."
Was the filibuster the brainchild of the Founding Fathers? No.
But the tactic of talking to waste time has been around since the beginning. "Using long speeches to delay action on legislation appeared in the very first session of the Senate," according to the U.S. Senate website. "On Sept. 22, 1789, Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay wrote in his diary that the 'design of the Virginians . . . was to talk away the time, so that we could not get the bill passed.'"
Originally, both the House and the Senate had nearly identical rule books. The House has kept a rule that allows a simple majority to cut off debate, explains Sarah A. Binder on the website for the Brookings Institution. In 1805, the Senate edited its rule book and dropped the rule. That made filibuster possible.
So what brought on the first successful filibuster?
It didn't happen until 1837. "A group of Whig senators who opposed President Andrew Jackson filibustered to prevent Jackson’s allies from expunging a resolution of censure against him," recounts the website History.com. In other words, the first successful filibuster was about politics, not policy.
Have politicians debated filibuster before?
"Filibusters became more frequent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to serious debate about changing Senate rules to curtail the practice," the Senate's website explains.
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