Growing Momentum To Fix Senate Rules

The campaign to reform the Senate rules is gaining ground and new supporters. CWA is working as part of a coalition that includes Sierra Club, Common Cause, US?Action, Progressive Congress.org and others.

More Senators are speaking out against restrictive holds and filibuster rules that keep the people’s business from even being debated. Senators Tom Harkin (Iowa), Tom Udall (N.M.), Claire McCaskill (Missouri), Amy Klobuchar?(Minnesota), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Mark Udall (Colo.), Dan Coats (Sen.-Elect, Indiana) and others have been talking why we must fix the broken Senate.

In the past legislative session, the House passed more than 400 bills, many of which would have provided real support to working and middle class families. Because of the Senate rules that permit an individual Senator to block even discussion of legislation, the Senate remained stuck in gridlock, with obstructionists blocking important initiatives for working families, like restoring bargaining rights through the Employee Free Choice Act, ending tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas and stopping pay discrimination against women, among others.

And it’s not just the filibuster that’s a problem.

Holds, secret holds and threatened filibusters by Senators meant government agencies like the National Labor Relations Board couldn’t do its job. The NLRB had just two members for nearly a year because of holds place on nominees to fill the remaining three seats. That has denied justice for thousands of workers who were illegally fired or mistreated by employers.

CWA and allies are asking Senators to move forward on eight specific principles, including an end to destructive “secret holds,” a reasonable opportunity for all Senators to express their views and a timely “yes or no” vote on every nomination and measure.

The Senate rules are not a part of the Constitution; they can be changed by Senators when the new Senate is sworn into office in early January.

Read more at www.fixthesenatenow.org.