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Filibuster

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 18, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. MERKLEY. Would the Senator from Iowa yield for a question?

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Mr. MERKLEY. Thank you very much.

First, thank you for coming to the floor to debate such an important issue as how to make the Senate work well as a deliberative body and how to make our country work well.

I was struck by a couple of things that you mentioned, and that is that you had stood strong fast against striking down the filibuster, and you noted how consistent you were. But you also criticized Democrats for changing position.

But can you help my memory out on this, because did you not vote to strike down the filibuster on Supreme Court nominations?

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Mr. MERKLEY. So you changed your position, as well you would concede, since previously you had opposed getting rid of the filibuster?

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Mr. MERKLEY. I do appreciate your response, and it is so rare that we actually have any dialogue on the floor of the Senate. It is one of the things we lost.

I do recall in that moment that, for over a year, we had working groups trying to resolve the extraordinary level--the new level--of cloture motions on President Obama's nominations. It concluded in a meeting in the Old Senate Chamber where the agreement was reached to stop doing that. And then, as you point out, Mitch McConnell came to the floor and said: It doesn't matter the quality of the individual who is nominated. I will not let any judge be considered for these three vacancies.

That is a completely unprecedented new element that is brought in to bear on that particular conversation. That is just to, kind of, illuminate some of the details that were left out.

I was struck by another thing you said, which is that the filibuster is not a relic of Jim Crow. I was struck about that because from 1891 through 1965--so we are talking over 80 years--the only thing that was blocked in the U.S. Senate by filibuster was civil rights for Black Americans. Given that, wouldn't you say it is fair for us to say that the filibuster in that history was, indeed, a relic of Jim Crow?

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Mr. MERKLEY. Thank you for answering and responding to my questions. I appreciate that.

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