New limitations On the Filibuster Usage

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Senate, this Thursday, opened a controversial debate about changing the longstanding rules of the filibuster for presidential nominees. The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, eased the confirmation process for most of the presidential nominees which is a bold step that changes 225 years of precedent. This action limits the ability of Republicans to obstruct the U.S. President’s choices for judicial posts and executive branch.

The Senate motioned to cast votes to make a change to Senate rules and put new limits on the use of the filibuster. The democrats, after being infuriated by the obstructions and pattern of delays, decided to use the ‘nuclear option’. ‘The American people believe Congress is broken. The American people believe the Senate is broken… It’s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete’ said Harry Reid on the Senate floor to open the debate. ‘It’s a manifest we have to do something to change things.’ Reid further argued that the Senate has started wasting too much time on matters that are part of routine work. This included the appointment of judges as well as approving executive branch nominees.

This move is bound to limit the power of the Republicans, the minority party with 45 members, to use filibusters to block nominees. It’s considered a delaying tactic but is considered the minority party’s only power to hold decision making and appointment of executives.  Harry Reid is considered to have the 51 votes that are needed to change the rules. This change would make the confirmation process of nominees an easier process that would be able to proceed with just 51 votes in the Senate. This change is not to be appointed to the Supreme Court nominations.