Common Cause Highlights "Two Shameful Milestones" in Senate

New analysis from Common Cause spotlights two recent "shameful milestones" that the current U.S. Senate should not be celebrating. Stephen Spaulding, the policy counsel for Common Cause, wrote:

"When the Senate returns today, it should not celebrate two milestones that it surpassed last week.

First, Majority Leader Harry Reid filed his 116th cloture petition – topping the total number of cloture petitions filed in the previous Congress and signaling the Senate's continuing dysfunction. To put this in perspective, it is already double the total number of cloture petitions filed in the entire five decade period between 1917-1968, when southern senators famously used the filibuster to thwart civil rights legislation, anti-lynching measures and voting rights bills.

Second, the Senate held its 100th cloture vote last week. The only other time the Senate voted 100 or more times on cloture was in the 110th Congress (2007-2008).

The Senate is on pace to shatter all previous filibuster records. And we still have nine more months to go before this Congress expires."

This is why it's so important now – more than ever – to fix the Senate now. Read Spaulding's full blog post on Common Cause's website.

And keep up with the latest on the fight by CWA and allies to change the Senate rules at http://fixthesenatenow.org/.