Senate filibuster reform atop green group priorities

Green groups said Wednesday that they plan to make Senate rules reform to limit filibusters one of their top priorities heading into the next Congress.

The organizations said they succeeded in their campaign strategy of electing Senate allies as a buffer against legislation from the GOP-dominated House.

But the groups said current Senate rules requiring 60 votes to move beyond a filibuster are untenable and will stunt progress on clean energy and environmental bills.

“We have to find some way to break the logjam in which, because of the way the Senate rules are currently constructed, it’s much too easy to stifle the development of good legislation,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said at a National Press Club event in Washington, D.C.

Brune said the groups want to work with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to change filibuster rules. Both Democrats and Republicans have employed the tactic to block legislation, with the GOP aggressively wielding that option as the Senate minority.

Reid said Wednesday that he intends to reform upper chamber rules to diminish Republicans’ ability to filibuster floor proceedings. He indicated he would not end filibusters entirely, instead seeking to limit the practice.

Rule changes through the normal process would require a two-thirds Senate vote, which would require some GOP lawmakers to join the chamber’s 54 or 55 expected Democrats. Reid also could invoke a controversial “constitutional” method for rule reform, under which changes require only a simple majority.

Jeremy Symons, senior adviser with the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, said the urgency for rule changes is baked in a new calculus surrounding climate change and clean energy issues.

He said the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy, this past summer’s record drought and wildfires that ravaged the West have heightened awareness on climate change issues.

“The old rules wont cut it where they move energy bills that are largely about satisfying special interests rather than dealing with the real problem at hand,” Symons said.