He told George Stephanopoulos that he wants to return to the “talking obstructionist”.
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he supports changing the Senate obstruction rule back to requiring senators to speak in plenary to present a bill, the first time he endorsed the reform of the White House procedure. for weeks he insisted that the president opposed the elimination.
The comments, made in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, could galvanize reform advocates who argue that legislative obstruction is obstructing Biden’s narrowly divided Senate agenda.
“Aren’t you going to have to choose between preserving the obstruction and moving your agenda forward?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden in his interview outside Philadelphia.
“Yes, but here’s the choice: I don’t think you have to remove the obstruction, you have to do what it used to be when I arrived in the Senate in the old days,” said Biden. “You had to get up and command the ground, you had to keep talking.”
“So you are in favor of this reform? Are you about to bring back the talking obstructionist?” Stephanopulos asked.
“I am. This is what it should be,” said Biden.
“It’s getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time working,” Biden told Stephanopoulos.
Also on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jan Psaki insisted that Biden preferred “not to make changes” to the obstruction, but was “open to hearing” ideas on the subject.
Currently, 60 votes are needed in the Senate to end the debate and pass the legislation, a limit that requires Democrats to have the support of at least 10 Republicans to advance bills in the Senate 50-50.
Many Democrats, concerned that the obstruction could delay important agenda items, such as voting rights and immigration reform, pressured Democrats to use their majority to remove the obstruction or change the rules. A proposal referenced by Biden on Tuesday would return to the “talking cheater” used decades ago, which required senators to speak on the Senate floor to challenge the legislation.
Although moderate Democrats sens. Joe Manchin, DW.Va. and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who have opposed changing the obstruction, Manchin recently raised the possibility of making the tactic more “painful” for Republicans – a comment taken by advocates of reform.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Warned Democrats on Tuesday against changing legislative obstruction.
“This chaos would not open an expressway for liberal change. It would not open an expressway for Biden’s presidency to quickly enter the history books,” he said. “The Senate would be more like a hundred-car pileup. Nothing moving.”
McConnell said Republicans would take advantage of any changes to the rules the next time they held the majority in the Senate.
“This pendulum swings both ways – with force,” he said.
Watch more of the interview with President Joe Biden on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program on Wednesday, March 17, at 7:00 am EDT.