President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the U.S. Senate should consider scrapping a longstanding supermajority rule known as the 'filibuster' if necessary to pass voting-rights legislation that is opposed by Republicans.
It is a surprising move for Biden who defended the rule during his 36 years as a Senator. But he believes the current threat to democracy is so severe Congress needs to pass either the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act without Republican support.
'I believe the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills,' he said in his speech in Atlanta. 'Debate them. Vote. Let the majority prevail—and if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.
Critics say the filibuster, which requires 60 of the 100 senators to agree on most legislation, is an anti-democratic hurdle that prevents Washington from addressing pressing problems.
Supporters say it forces lawmakers to seek consensus, serves as important check on the party in power and ensures that major laws that affect American life don't change radically with every election.
Once a rarity, the filibuster is now routinely invoked. In recent months, Republicans have used it to block voting-rights bills and bring the United States perilously close to a crippling debt default.
Democrats could use their razor-thin Senate majority to eliminate the filibuster altogether.
But centrist Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema oppose this move, saying that it will shatter the few bipartisan bonds that remain and give Republicans free rein if they take a majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has warned that his party would use other tactics to bring the chamber to a halt if the filibuster is eliminated.
WHAT IS THE FILIBUSTER? TERM DERIVED FROM CARIBBEAN PIRATES THAT MEANS 'TALKING TO DEATH'
Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate was set up to allow for unlimited debate. In the 19th century, lawmakers developed the filibuster - a word derived from Dutch and Spanish terms for Caribbean pirates - as a way to talk a bill to death.
Then-Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond set the record when he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes
