After weeks of White House pushback, President Biden has signaled his support for a Senate reform that could make it possible for Democrats to ram their legislative agenda through Congress.
Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki have been pummeled with questions regarding the president’s position on the filibuster, each time insisting he wasn’t open to change that would permit legislation and confirmations to pass the Senate with a simple majority.
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But in a Tuesday interview, Biden indicated he could back a modification that would technically preserve the filibuster while providing him and his congressional colleagues with the opportunity to skirt the need for 60 votes in an evenly divided Senate.
“I don’t think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days. You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking,” he told ABC.
When host George Stephanopoulos pressed to confirm Biden supported simply the so-called “talking filibuster,” the president said he did. The “talking filibuster” was an old rule that allowed senators to challenge a bill by taking up time on the chamber’s floor rather than the current iteration, which requires 60 votes to stop debate and clear the measure.
“That’s what it was supposed to be,” Biden added Tuesday.
Momentum for reform has been stymied by opposition from centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Other Democrats on Capitol Hill suggested more liberal members of the conference exercise patience because Manchin and Sinema would likely change their minds if Republicans blocked their work. Any alterations, however, will just as likely trigger the wrath of the GOP.
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Earlier Tuesday, Psaki foreshadowed a slight shift in Biden’s stance, saying the president was “open to hearing ideas,” though his “preference” was the status quo.
“This is, of course, a Senate rule. It’s not a law that he would change or sign into law. It’s a Senate rule,” she said aboard Air Force One.
