Vice President JD Vance has once again weighed in on the filibuster debate following President Donald Trump’s repeated calls to end it.
The filibuster is a long-standing Senate rule that allows senators to delay and block voting on legislation through extending debate on an issue. At present, at least 60 votes are needed to end debate before the legislation itself can be voted on. Republicans currently hold a 53–47 majority in the upper chamber.
At the time, Sinema explained her opposition, saying the answer to divisiveness in the Senate and in the country is not to change filibuster rules so that one party, even hers, can pass controversial bills.
“We must address the disease itself, the disease of division, to protect our democracy,” Sinema said at the time on the Senate floor.
Manchin said: “Ending the filibuster would be the easy way out. I cannot support such a perilous course for this nation.”
Trump has pointed to the situation from three years ago, when Democrats tried to change the rules, warning that they’ll do it again.
Supporters of the rule say the threshold allows lawmakers to seek consensus, serves as a check on the party in power, and ensures that major laws don’t change radically with every election. On the other hand, critics say the filibuster is actually a hurdle in the democratic process that prevents Washington from solving pressing problems.
In the past few weeks, Trump has ramped up calls to eliminate the filibuster so that senators can advance the GOP agenda and push more legislation through.
But the president has faced resistance on the issue. Republicans have argued that the filibuster has benefited their side when Democrats have power. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the rule is what “makes the Senate the Senate,” and he also pointed out that the votes are not there to change the rule.
Trump recently suggested that Democrats will win the midterms and the White House if the filibuster is not eliminated because it will be “impossible” for Republicans to push through policies without Democrats’ ability to “block everything” by withholding their votes.
“FOR THREE YEARS, NOTHING WILL BE PASSED, AND REPUBLICANS WILL BE BLAMED,” the president said, adding that the midterms will be “rightfully brutal.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
