Filibuster

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I think we all remember the situation just a few short months ago in the lead-up to the election. Democrat Senators and Senate candidates were declaring their commitment to eliminating the filibuster or creating carve-outs that would render it meaningless. The Democratic leader himself made it very clear that the days of the filibuster were numbered, telling a crowd at the Democratic National Convention that his party would be changing the rules to pass the Democrats' Federal takeover of elections. The filibuster, it seemed, was on its way out.

Fast-forward to yesterday. Yesterday, it seems there was a sudden change of heart because yesterday every Senate Democrat--the Democratic leader, new Democratic Senators, long-serving Democratic Senators who had expressed their desire to get rid of the filibuster--joined together and filibustered a bill. That is right. Every Democratic Senator participated in a filibuster of yesterday's legislation.

I will leave aside the disturbing fact that Democrats chose to unite to block a bill to protect living, breathing, newborn children born alive after an attempted abortion.

What I want to talk about today is Democrats' apparent belief that there should be one rule for Democrats and another rule for everyone else. Back in 2017, during President Trump's first term, when Republicans controlled the Senate, 32 Senate Democrats--many of whom, I might add, are still serving today--joined a letter to Senate leadership asking for preservation of the legislative filibuster. Then Democrats took power, and all of a sudden Democrats started to find the legislative filibuster a major inconvenience. They wanted to pass highly partisan legislation like their Federal takeover of elections, and they discovered the filibuster was getting in the way.

Now, Republicans are in power again, and it seems Democrats are back to supporting the filibuster. And the only thing I can gather from that is that Democrats think they should be free to pass any legislation they choose when they are in power but the Republicans should not; that the rules should apply when they serve the aims of the Democratic Party and that the rules should be abolished whenever they interfere with Democrats' far-left agenda; in short, that one party, the Democratic Party, should be making decisions in this country.

That is not a very democratic attitude. It also betrays an elitism, a disdain for half of the electorate that perhaps had something to do with Democrats' electoral defeat in November.

Now, there is no doubt that the filibuster can sometimes be frustrating. I am frustrated that we couldn't pass legislation yesterday to uphold basic human decency by requiring that babies born alive after an attempted abortion receive appropriate medical care. But the filibuster serves a crucial purpose.

The Founders intended the Senate to be a counterbalance to the House. It was designed to be a more stable, thoughtful, more deliberative legislative body to check ill-considered or intemperate legislation or tyranny by the majority. And as time has gone on, the legislative filibuster is the Senate rule that has had perhaps the greatest impact in preserving the Founders' vision of the Senate.

The filibuster acts as a check on imprudent or ill-considered legislation. It forces discussion and compromise, and, critically, it ensures that Americans whose party is not in power also have a voice in Congress. Preserving the filibuster is crucial to preserving the Senate's checks and balances role in our system of government.

I expect that Democrats will continue to display a renewed enthusiasm for the filibuster during this Congress. And while I may strongly disagree with their choice of when to use it, I will continue to defend their right to do so. Keeping the Senate the Senate and ensuring it continues to fill the role envisioned for it by the Founders is more important than temporary political gain. I hope that when the day comes that Democrats retake the Senate, their time in the minority will have reminded them of the crucial role the filibuster plays and that they will carry their newfound enthusiasm for the filibuster with them when they again find themselves in our shoes.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source