Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said
Monday he will seek changes in the 60-vote filibuster process to
prevent Republicans from blocking bills from reaching the floor.
Reid said he want to end the process on motions to proceed a
bill, which means senators can filibuster the final passage of a
bill, instead of delaying the process of moving on to it, making
supporters of such bill run out the clock to hold votes.
"I and no one on the Democratic side has proposed getting rid of
the filibuster," Reid said on the Senate floor. "Just that we do
away with the filibuster on the motion to proceed," Reid noted.
Republicans, however, balked at the idea. Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell called on senators to oppose such reforms, saying
the effort is nothing but "naked power grab."
A powerful but once rarely used parliamentary device in the
Senate, filibuster has been employed more frequently in recent years
by Republicans to block bills they don't like, meaning most major
legislations, apart from budgets and confirmations, require a 60
percent supermajority to head off a filibuster. Senate Republicans'
excessive use of filibusters, coupled with Democrats' failure to
capture supermajority in the chamber, has contributed greatly to the
political deadlock in Washington. Scholars have been calling for
reform in filibuster for some time.
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