Before 1917, senators could filibuster only by talking
continuously on the U.S. Senate floor. There was no mechanism to stop them.
Such filibusters were rare until entering World War I was debated. In 1917, the
Senate passed its first “cloture” rule, whereby two-thirds of the Senate could
cut off debate and force a final vote. Between that year and 1971, no two-year
session of Congress had more than 10 such votes. Even so, in 1971 the rules
were changed to allow other legislation to be taken up during a filibuster—relieving
a senator of having to continuously talk to maintain one. Making it easier to
filibuster quickly led to the predictable result of more filibusters. In the 93rd
Congress (1973-74), the number of cloture motions jumped to 31, from an average
in the 1917-1971 period of two per Congressional session. In 1975, the number
of votes needed to stop a filibuster was lowered from 67 to 60. However, this
change did not curtail the use of the device, as it is rare for a party to
control 60 votes out of 100 in the U.S. Senate. By 2010, the average number of
cloture motions per two-year session had risen to 129, which suggests that the
filibuster had become more typical in how senate business was to be conducted. In
effect, legislation and even executive business, such as confirming
presidential nominations, needed a supermajority (60 out of 100) in the upper
chamber of Congress.
The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires, available at Amazon.
The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires, available at Amazon.
