The future of a longstanding U.S. Senate tradition, the filibuster, is still uncertain, and many Republicans, including Senator Chuck Grassley, are growing increasingly concerned the 60-vote minimum required to pass most legislation will soon be eliminated. According to Grassley, all 50 Republican senators are in favor of maintaining the filibuster, but Senate Democrats would be able to do away with it on a party-line vote with Vice President Harris as the tiebreaker. Grassley says the filibuster can be frustrating for the majority party but notes it forces Republicans and Democrats to work together to create law. Without the 60-vote minimum, Grassley says Americans would experience frequent and massive shifts in policy.
The filibuster grants the minority party in the Senate greater influence on what can become law, but Grassley says that is not necessarily a bad thing. Bills on controversial topics pass through the House of Representatives regularly but don’t ever make it to the president’s desk to be signed. As an example, Grassley cites House Resolution 1 (H.R. 1), the For the People Act of 2021, which expands the federal government’s role in elections.
Grassley also highlights recent efforts to expand gun control measures through broad federal background checks on firearms purchases or President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan. He says those bills have a very slim chance of advancing through the Senate if the filibuster remains intact. According to Grassley, two Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, have broken with their party to defend the filibuster, but their support of the centuries-old tradition is the only thing preventing simple majority rule in the Senate.
