Filibuster Abuse Must End or Be Ended

Statement of Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn 

Minority Leader McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to hold up the Senate’s organizing resolution over the filibuster rule was a trial balloon that failed.

Americans voted for change and they expect the new President and the new Congress to address the pressing health, financial, structural racism, climate, and democracy crises facing our nation. McConnell, a fierce architect of obstruction throughout his tenure in Congress, has signaled his plans for the 117^th Congress: Delay, deny, and distort the Majority’s right to set the chamber’s agenda at every turn. We have seen this before when McConnell spent six years abusing the filibuster at unprecedented levels during the Obama administration. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

The Senate’s filibuster rule—a Jim Crow relic used for decades to thwart civil rights legislation—must not be used to obstruct the people’s business any longer. McConnell has signaled that he is prepared to obstruct key parts of the Biden Administration’s agenda, including democracy and voting rights legislation. The Senate Democratic Majority must swiftly eliminate the filibuster.