The Breakdown: How to Bust the Filibuster

The Breakdown: How to Bust the Filibuster

The Breakdown: How to Bust the Filibuster

Could the Senate start getting things done, if only legislators didn’t have to face filibuster threats? This week on The Breakdown: the history of the filibuster, and how to get rid of it.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

The United States Senate is being held hostage by the filibuster. This week’s Breakdown with Christopher Hayes explores the legislative history of this procedural mechanism and the options for its amendment or abolition.

The Breakdown Plenty of criticisms have been leveled against the United States Senate, but perhaps the most accurate and deserved is that it seems incapable of achieving anything substantive. Many blame the filibuster, once an infrequently used procedural technique that has become a de facto legislative obstacle. This week’s Breakdown with DC Editor Christopher Hayes takes a quick tour through the filibuster’s history and the options for its removal or amendment.

Resources

Congressional Research Service Report on ‘Changing Senate Rules.’

Graphs demonstrating increased use of cloture and filibuster.

Christopher Hayes on the Rachel Maddow Show discussing the filibuster.

Note: This episode of The Breakdown originally aired February 19. New episodes will return next week.

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x