President Joe Biden left the door open to support a drastic obstruction reform during his first press conference on Thursday, calling the Senate procedure that requires 60 votes to pass most laws a relic of the Jim Crow era.
“If there is complete blockage and chaos as a result of the obstruction, then we will have to go beyond what I am talking about,” said Biden, after reiterating his position that the Senate should return to a rule that would require senators to continue speaking on the ground to delay a law project.
The focus on obstruction comes when Biden asks Congress to approve new gun control measures after the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado, and when the Senate starts hearings around HR 1, a broad human rights bill. voting and democracy reform. Republican state legislatures promoted bills that would restrict access to voting after the 2020 election, putting pressure on Biden and Democrats to act to expand and protect voting rights.
The voting restrictions that state Republicans are proposing are “unhealthy,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I am convinced that we will be able to prevent this, because it is the most pernicious thing that makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle,” he added. Biden added that he would do everything in his power with allies in Congress to prevent these measures from becoming law.
Biden spoke about the historical use of the obstruction and added that it is being “abused in a gigantic way”. He later agreed when asked about former President Barack Obama’s assessment that the obstruction was a relic of the Jim Crow era, but did not actually call for the procedure to be abolished.
The catch-22 of the Senate obstruction is that it takes 60 votes to pass any legislation, but only 51 votes to end the obstruction itself. That’s because Senate rules can be rewritten by a simple majority. This means that Democrats could, in theory, remove the obstruction if all 50 Democratic senators voted in favor and Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaker in favor.
“A successful electoral policy is the art of the possible,” said Biden, when asked directly whether he supported the end of the rule. “We are going to find out how we can do this and move towards significantly changing abuse even of the obstruction rule.”
Biden’s position is a change from just a few weeks earlier, when the White House resisted making any changes to the procedure to carry out the latest round of coronavirus relief. Progressive groups and some Senate Democrats recently expressed their frustration at the obstruction and called for the rules to be changed in order to approve important parts of their agenda.
Democrats still face obstacles to reform or abolish obstruction by moderate Democratic senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who favor bipartisan legislation instead of reducing the limit to 51 votes.
Ending or significantly changing the obstruction would mean ending centuries of precedent, although it was hardly the first time. Both parties have reduced the obstruction in recent years. The obstruction no longer applies to votes that confirm cabinet secretaries, judges or even Supreme Court judges. Both parties also used an obstruction-proof loophole called budgetary reconciliation to approve massive bills – relief from COVID by Democrats, tax cuts by Republicans – in the Senate. But the obstruction in the legislation proved to be the last line in the sand.
An intermediate measure being considered by Democrats is to force those who are making the obstruction to participate actively. In the popular imagination, the term obstruction brings to mind images of politicians standing for hours, blocking legislation by refusing to stop talking. In the Senate, the reality is much less dramatic. There is a vote to advance the legislation and if it does not reach 60 votes, the project stays where it is (in practice, it kills the project). Moving to an active obstruction would force Republicans to have to be physically present to prevent the legislation.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell aggressively used the obstruction to kill progressive legislation in both the Obama administration and former President Donald Trump when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Earlier this year, McConnell warned Democrats that, if they lifted the obstruction, Republicans would do everything in their power to retaliate. “If that majority were scorched earth, this body would stop as we have never seen it,” he said. “It would be a nightmare. I guarantee. “