Whereas, the use of the original “talking” filibuster by U.S. Senators had the primary purpose of protecting slavery prior to the Civil War and then later other forms of segregation, including the lynching of African Americans by vigilante groups,
Whereas, the use of the filibuster prior to 1976 to protect racial slavery and “Jim Crow” laws was a shameful part of American history,
Whereas, the use of the filibuster was partly changed in 1976 to allow the so called “procedural” filibuster in place of the “talking” filibuster, so as to remove the necessity of Senators engaging in “continuous debate” to block a simple majority vote on a bill and to make it even easier to filibuster,
Whereas there is no such thing as a “procedural filibuster” in any accepted rules of parliamentary procedure or in parliamentary or deliberative body in any country today,
Whereas the Constitution does not permit the use of the procedural filibuster or for any other device that is inconsistent with the rules of parliamentary procedure and the enactment of legislation in the Senate by a simple majority vote,
Whereas, the use of the “filibuster” rule to block a majority vote in the U.S. Senate has increased from seven occasions in a Senate term in the early 1970s to over 100 or even 120 a term,
Whereas, there is no longer any consistent use of majority rule on the most crucial and important votes,
Whereas, this is increased use of the procedural filibuster is both a recent and major Constitutional change which has occurred without the approval or ratification of any amendment to the Constitution or the consent of the people of the United States,
Whereas the use of this procedural filibuster is often anonymous and there is little or no accountability in the decision of even a single Senator to require 60 votes instead of 50.
Whereas, the Speaker of the House does not have the power to change the rules of government as any single Senator can do,
Whereas, the use of the procedural filibuster makes it difficult and in some cases impossible to deal in any effective way with the challenges to the security of the United States, especially in matters dealing with the environment, global warming, and dependence on diminishing supplies of foreign oil,
Whereas, the Administration of the Executive Branch of the United States is paralyzed from time to time by the use of the procedural filibuster and “holds” on Presidential appointments placed anonymously by even a single Senator; and in some cases, Presidential Administrations have operated for months and years without appointees in key posts,
Whereas, the reckless use of the procedural filibuster to paralyze the operation of the government in this way has been a threat to our national security,
Whereas, the use of the filibuster has corrupted the integrity of the judicial nomination process, so that nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court are forced to give evasive and misleading answers and in doing so help bring the judiciary into disrepute,
BE IT RESOLVED:
- That the use of the procedural filibuster as currently practiced by members of the Senate pursuant to Senate Rule 22 is not authorized by the Constitution of the United States.
- That the use of the procedural filibuster as currently practiced by members of the Senate pursuant to Senate Rule 22 is harmful to the security of the United States and the effective day to day operation of the government of the United States for the reasons set forth above,
- That the use of the procedural filibuster as currently authorized by Senate Rule 22 should be suspended temporarily until such time as the people of the United States have had an opportunity to determine whether to adopt the procedural filibuster by amendment to the Constitution of the United States
- That the members of this House request the members of the United States Senate to suspend Senate Rule 22 in this manner or take such other action by legislation or otherwise to address this problem.
