President Barack Obama, whose comments on obstruction as an outdated practice reminiscent of the Jim Crow era were echoed by President Biden on Thursday, once delivered a speech in the Senate plenary in favor of maintaining the procedural process.
In 2005, then Senator Obama delivered a speech arguing against ending the obstruction and thus allowing one party to “change the rules in the middle of the game so that he could make all the decisions while the other party should sit down and keep it cool. “
“If the majority decides to end the obstruction, if it chooses to change the rules and end the Democratic debate, then the struggle, bitterness and stalemate will only get worse,” said Obama.
In a speech he gave at the funeral for the civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., In July 2020, Obama said that if obstruction needed to be removed in order to pass civil rights and voting rights legislation , then it should be.
“And if all of this leads to the elimination of the obstructor, another relic of Jim Crow, in order to guarantee the God-given rights to all Americans, then that is what we must do,” said Obama.
BIDEN IN 2005 SAID THAT NIXING FILIBUSTER ‘TRAVEL CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN’ AND ‘EVISCER THE SENATE’
Obstruction is a long-standing procedural process that allows a legislator to oppose and interrupt new actions or votes, which in the past have led senators to make lengthy and lengthy speeches on different topics.
Today, senators can only signal their intention to object, even in private, and that is enough for Senate leaders to act. Leaders sometimes simply drop the issue.
Otherwise, 60 votes are required to end an obstruction.
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Changing the obstruction rules is an idea supported by some Senate Democrats eager to advance Biden’s equally divided 50-50 Senate agenda.
Biden echoed Obama’s thoughts about the obstruction on Thursday during his first official press conference as president, agreeing when a reporter introduced him to Obama’s characterization of the obstruction as a relic of the Jim Crow era.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.