Why The U.S. Senate Isn't Working

Just how bad are things today in the Senate? If the climate of obstructionism in the Senate that exists today represented how that body has always operated, landmark legislation that brought social and economic justice to millions of Americans would never have been enacted.

Organizing and bargaining rights through the National Labor Relations Act. Secure retirement and health care for older Americans that resulted from the Social Security and Medicare programs. An end to years of discrimination endured by people of color through the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.

These were very controversial measures when introduced in Congress, much more so than any of the issues that have been delayed, blocked or killed by Republican-led abuse of the Senate rules, including filibusters, in the past few years.

Just one of these landmark measures — the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — was subject to a filibuster. The biggest obstacle to civil rights was a block of 18 mostly Southern senators who led a 57-day filibuster against the bill.

Democrats were in the majority in 1964, and the legislation had the strong support of President Lyndon Johnson. But breaking the filibuster required the political courage of Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, who convinced enough Republican colleagues to support the bill and pass this historic legislation.

This kind of cooperation is non-existent in today’s Senate.

Republican Senate leaders routinely abuse the filibuster and other Senate rules simply to obstruct the nation’s business, and not because they oppose a particular bill.

Republicans even block measures that they themselves have urged President Obama to support. Case in point: earlier this year, the Obama administration announced the creation of a Presidential Debt Commission that would make recommendations to reduce the federal debt. Republicans suggested that instead of an advisory group, the debt commission be established by Congress so that it would have real authority.

The White House and Senate Democrats agreed, and introduced legislation to do just that. Senate Republicans led a filibuster that killed the measure.

Republicans also have used holds and filibusters to block legislation they later voted to approve overwhelmingly. The Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights eventually passed the Senate by a 92-2, but Senate Republicans delayed the bill for months.

Because of his five-day filibuster, one senator, Republican Jim Bunning (Kentucky) held up unemployment compensation for thousands of jobless Americans, delayed Medicare payments to doctors and caused thousands of federal transportation workers to be furloughed. That bill eventually passed by a 98-0 vote.

This kind of obstructionism in the Senate is pure politics, by a Republican leadership that is doing the bidding of special corporate interests.