How does the recent use of the filibuster compare to how it used in the past? How might it be used in the future? Use details from the textbook to support your answer.
well if i knew that i wouldn't be on here now would i?
i think this is why its better just watching an ad on Brainly lmaoo
Ms. Sue we don't have a textbook
Kinda wanna go out with Ms Sue tbh :/
Ron, that's an excerpt from the textbook lol
Over the past years, the use of the filibuster was greatly increased. Republicans have executed 40% more filibusters since 1992, or nearly double the Democrat rate, in an effort to make the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress take the blame for not getting things done. But today the political fallout from over-use of the filibuster has been drastic. In the future, obstructionism may take effect. This obstructionism has caused a lack of oversight, efficiency, and intellectual resources required for a functioning government to manage America's complex institutions.
The Filibuster Essentially, a filibuster is an attempt to “talk a bill to death.” It is a stalling tactic by which a minority of senators seeks to delay or prevent Senate action on a measure. The filibusterers try to monopolize the Senate floor and its time so that the Senate must either drop the bill or change it in some manner acceptable to the minority.
Talk—and more talk—is the filibusterers' major weapon. In addition, senators may use time-killing motions, quorum calls, and other parliamentary maneuvers. Indeed, anything to delay or obstruct is grist for the minority's mill as it works to block a bill that would very likely pass if brought to a vote.
Among the many better-known filibusterers, Senator Huey Long (D., Louisiana) spoke for more than 15 hours in 1935. He stalled by reading from the Washington telephone directory and giving his colleagues his recipes for “pot-likker,” corn bread, and turnip greens. Senator Strom Thurmond (R., South Carolina) set the current filibuster record for an individual. He held the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes in an unsuccessful, one-person effort against what, despite his arguments, became the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Most later efforts have not come close to matching Senator Thurmond's record. In fact, both in the past and today, nearly all filibusters are team efforts, with a number of senators taking turns on the floor, relieving one another as they monopolize the Senate's time.
Well over 300 measures have been killed by filibusters. Just the threat of a filibuster has resulted in the Senate's failure to consider a number of bills and the amending of many others. The Senate often tries to beat off a filibuster with lengthy, even day-and-night, sessions to wear down the participants. At times, some little-observed rules are strictly enforced. Among them are the requirements that senators stand—not sit, lean on their desks, or walk about—as they speak and that they not use “unparliamentary language” on the floor. These countermeasures seldom work.
The Cloture Rule The Senate's real check on the filibuster is its Cloture Rule, Rule XXII in the Standing Rules of the Senate. It was first adopted in 1917, after one of the most notable of all filibusters in Senate history. That filibuster, which lasted for three weeks, took place less than two months before the United States entered World War I.
German submarines had renewed their attacks on shipping in the North Atlantic, so President Wilson asked Congress to permit the arming of American merchant vessels. The bill, widely supported in the country, quickly passed the House, by a vote of 403–13. The measure died in the Senate, however, because twelve senators filibustered it until the end of the congressional term on March 4th.
The public was outraged. President Wilson declared: “A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, has rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible.” The Senate passed the Cloture Rule at its next session.
Rule XXII provides for cloture—limiting debate. The rule is not in regular, continuing force; it can be brought into play only by a special procedure. A vote to invoke the rule must be taken two days after a petition calling for that action has been submitted by at least 16 members of the Senate. If at least 60 senators—three fifths of the full Senate—vote for the motion, the rule becomes effective. From that point, no more than another 30 hours of floor time may be spent on the measure. Then it must be brought to a final vote.
Of more than 700 attempts to invoke the rule, less than a third have been successful. Many senators hesitate to vote for cloture because (1) they honor the tradition of free debate and/or (2) they worry that frequent use of cloture will undercut the value of the filibuster that they may someday want to use.
Modern Uses of the Filibuster Filibusters have become much more common in recent years because, for more than a decade now, party control of the upper house has been a very narrow thing. The Democrats enjoyed a reasonably comfortable majority in the 111th Congress (2009–2011): 58 Democrats (plus two independent members who chose to support the Democrats), to the GOP's 40 seats. Even so, the 60 votes needed to beat back a filibuster were at times hard to come by.
Since 2010, the Democrats have had a much smaller margin of control in the Senate. Today, the balance sits at 53 seats for the Democrats to the GOP's 45 seats. Two independents are expected to support the Democrats.
The Longest Filibusters
NAME OF SENATOR
YEAR
TOPIC
LENGTH OF FILIBUSTER
Strom Thurmond 1957 opposed Civil Rights Act of 1957 24 h, 18 m
Alfonse D'Amato 1986 opposed military spending bill 23 h, 30 m
Wayne Morse 1953 opposed Tidelands oil bill 22 h, 26 m
Robert LaFollette 1908 opposed a currency bill 18 h, 23 m
William Proxmire 1981 opposed a debt ceiling increase 16 h, 12 m
More Filibusters, More Cloture
CONGRESS
YEAR
CLOTURE MOTIONS FILED
CLOTURE INVOKED
65 1917–1918 2 0
85 1957–1958 0 0
95 1977–1978 23 3
100 1987–1988 54 12
105 1997–1998 69 18
110 2007–2008 139 61
112 2011–2012 115 41
SOURCE: Senate.gov
Since the Senate adopted the cloture rule in 1917, its use has grown as filibusters have become more common.
Analyze Charts Though filed often, why do you think cloture is invoked so rarely?
Even with those two votes, however, the Democrats do not have the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.
Over the past several years, the minority party, at times the Democrats, currently the Republicans, have made frequent use of the filibuster to block legislation backed by the majority party. And their filibusters have been regularly successful. They have because, given the Cloture Rule, the minimum number of votes necessary to pass an important bill in the Senate today is not 51 or a simple majority of the members present and voting. It is, instead, 60, the minimum number of votes necessary to invoke cloture (end debate). It is true that filibusters can protect the minority and prevent hasty and ill-considered legislation. It is also true that they can promote gridlock, and public ridicule.