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House leaders tell Senate to embrace the filibuster |
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By Mike Soraghan
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Posted: 11/09/07 08:23 PM [ET] |
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said House leaders are pressing the Senate Democrats to force Republicans to stage more filibusters.
The idea, he said, is to give voters a clearer understanding that Democrats have been unable to enact more of their agenda.
“We have urged Harry Reid to pursue filibusters,” Hoyer told reporters Thursday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “That is the only way you can give Americans a clear view of who is obstructing change.”
Hoyer’s request to Reid is the latest sign of the House leadership’s growing frustration with the Senate. Democratic House members generally confine their overt criticism for Senate Republicans. In this case, the House’s number-two Democrat made it public that he complained to Reid.
A common Washington quip, however, is that the best way for a House member to get a senator to do something is to urge publicly that a senator not to do it.
Reid aides declined comment. Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that holding filibusters is not going to get bills moving in the Senate. Stewart added it seems odd for Democrats to start talking tough six weeks after spending bills should have been finished for the new fiscal year.
“This is like not turning in your homework until the next semester, then claiming your dog ate it,” Stewart said.
Senate bills generally need 60 votes to pass. Bills can be blocked by holds, which effectively signal that if the bill comes to the floor, the senator placing the hold would filibuster it. The Senate requires 60 votes to end a filibuster.
By urging more filibusters, House leaders are suggesting that Republicans should not be allowed to simply place a hold. Instead, opponents should be forced to go to the floor and start talking to prevent a vote.
One aide pointed out that filibusters don’t always resemble Jimmy Stewart speaking passionately on the Senate floor. They can be done almost silently with quorum calls.
Frustration with the Senate has been growing for some time, but it has gotten worse since Senate Republicans blocked a vote on a bill by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to require more training and rest time for troops between deployments to Iraq.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ramped up her public criticism after that episode. She also started talking less about Democratic accomplishments and more about House accomplishments. She also stressed the House had passed its appropriations bills on time, leaving out that the Senate had not progressed nearly as quickly.
In September, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), whose tax plans have been constrained, complained about the “Republican-controlled Senate.”
In October, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also suggested forcing Republicans to filibuster.
“I think it would be important for the American people to get a more concrete understanding of the lengths Republicans will go to in order to hold these things up,” Van Hollen said.
Discussing Iraq Thursday, Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) said of the Senate: “They’re so timid. It’s becoming extremely frustrating.” |
