Private: Examining Numbers on Use of the Filibuster

Yesterday, The Associated Press reported that Senate Republicans are employing the filibuster to slow or scuttle legislation "at a record-setting pace." The article went on to cite the number of times cloture votes have been called to see if the majority can hold 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. John Aravosis of Americablog, studied the numbers on the Senate Web site and concluded that the AP got the numbers "wrong regarding GOP filibusters." But he maintains that despite the mistake, "the Republicans are filibustering twice as often as Democrats have in any previous Congress - so they clearly are abusing the system."

Aravosis writes:

What the data clearly shows is that he GOP is filibustering at twice the rate of what the Democrats did before, including what they did under Bush. So Republicans can't claim that Democrats did it too - they didn't. Not like this.

Another interesting data point: IN the last ninety years, there have been 1,195 cloture motions filed, and a874 cloture votes, per the Senate site. The Republicans in the last three years that they've been in the minority, have caused 215 of the motions to be filed, and 157 of those cloture votes. That means in just the past three years, the Republicans have been responsible for 18% of all filibusters recorded in the past 90 years.

On March 9 at the National Press Club, ACS will host a panel discussion of experts on the filibuster's effect on judicial nominations. See here for more on the national filibuster event.

Also, Sen. Tom Harkin recently wrote in a guest post for ACSblog on his effort to reform
the filibuster.

[image via www.phocabulary.com]

Importance of the Courts, Separation of Powers and Federalism