OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Though she is no longer a U.S. senator, Vice President Kamala Harris made a threat to change the way the chamber conducts business if her Democratic Party wins control of the chamber outright in the midterm elections.
Namely, the VP is threatening to blow up the long-standing Senate filibuster so the chamber can pass any legislation Democrats want without having to worry about any Republican support.
The filibuster rule is not a constitutional requirement. It requires the votes of 60 senators to move most legislation, so ending it would mean bills could be voted on and passed by a simple majority. Currently, there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans in the chamber; as VP, Harris serves as the Senate president and vote tiebreaker.
“In less than two months, we are looking at a midterm election in which so much is on the line. Take, for example, the issue of choice. The United States Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision just took away a constitutional right that had been recognized from the women of America from the people of America,” Harris told Chuck Todd during Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”
“Well, how does that relate to the midterms? Our president has said he will not let the filibuster get in the way. If the Senate though a majority voter, votes to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, he will sign it into law. You know what that means in the midterms? We need to hold on to the Senate and get two more then we can put into the law the protections of Roe v. Wade. Everything is on the line when you think about the millions of women and the people in America that care about them who understand the significance of women making the decisions about her own body,” she said.
“If the Democrats get 52 Senate seats or more, legislative filibuster gone? Or just on this issue?” host Chuck Todd said.
“The president has been clear on this issue and on another very important issue which is voting rights,” Harris responded.
The reason why Democrats would need 52 members in the Senate to ditch the filibuster is because two of their current members — Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — resolutely oppose getting rid of the rule. No doubt they would join the 48 Republicans in the Senate in opposing the rule; so a tie vote would mean Harris could tip the balance in favor of removing the rule.
In January, Manchin made an impassioned plea for Democrats not to get rid of the rule because it could backfire on them if Republicans were to eventually win back control of the chamber.
“I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation when elected leaders are sent to Washington to unite our country, not to divide our country,” the senator said.
“Let this change happen in this way, and the Senate will be a body without rules,” he said.
“We’ve changed the rules,” in the past, Manchin said. “But we changed them with the rules. We didn’t break the rules to change the rules. But all of a sudden now we just can’t do it anymore. Just got to blow it up,” he said.
“The rule book means that the rules changes are done on the basis of broad, bipartisan consensus, not imposed on the minority by raw majority power,” he explained. “No matter who is in power.”
“The majority does not have that power to do that in this Senate,” he added.
WATCH:
“Now, my colleagues propose to sidestep this process,” he said. “They would use the nuclear option to override a rule we have used ourselves. But now seem to find it unacceptable.”
“Unacceptable now. We are going to break the rules to change the rules,” the senator said. “And make up new rules as we go along and invite ourselves to the future majorities to disregard the rule book at will.”
“We don’t have to change the rules to make our case to the American people about voting rights,” the senator said. “We could have kept voting rights legislation as a pending business for the Senate today. Next week, a month from now, this is important. Let’s work it out. Let’s see. Stay here and go at it.”
“Allowing one party to exert complete control in the Senate with only a simple majority will only pour fuel on the fire of political whiplash and dysfunction that is tearing this nation apart,” he said. “Contrary to what some have said, protecting the role of the minority – Democrat or Republican – has protected us from the volatile political swings that we have endured over the last 233 years.”
“Eliminating the filibuster would be the easy way out,” he argued.
