At 2:35pm, EST, President Barack Obama will deliver a statement from the White House press briefing room. Live video of the president’s remarks will be available below:
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Sen. Mitch McConnell
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Reprinted with permission from American Independent
Senate Republicans are mounting an aggressive campaign to keep their power to block nearly all of the new Democratic majority's legislative proposals.
<p>But while they now defend the Senate's filibuster rule as vital for "bipartisanship," they unanimously voted to eliminate it for Supreme Court nominations less than four years ago.</p><p>While it only takes a simple majority in the 100-member U.S. Senate to pass legislation, with few exceptions it takes a three-fifths supermajority — 60 votes — to end debate and actually hold a vote. Segregationists long used those cloture rules to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/senate-filibuster-monument-white-supremacy/613579/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">block</a> civil rights legislation and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell used them a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna35643530" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">record-breaking</a> number of times to obstruct President Barack Obama's agenda.</p><script id="3d14008d7e044c36b256c61ff82728bb">
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</script><p>Senate rules would allow just 51 senators to change that 60-vote threshold. After Democrats retook a narrow majority in the chamber on Wednesday, McConnell (R-KY) and his colleagues began <a href="https://americanindependent.com/senate-republican-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-chuck-schumer-jon-tester-democrats-filibuster-grim-reaper-legislation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demanding</a> Democrats agree in advance not to do so.</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-aaad="true"></div>
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<div id="vid"></div><p>Much of their argument has centered on the importance of preserving the super-majority requirement as a way to ensure bipartisan decisions.</p><p>But back in April 2017, the 60-vote requirement also applied to Supreme Court nominations. When Donald Trump nominated conservative Neil Gorsuch to the high court, he lacked the needed supermajority to be confirmed.</p><p>Rather than find a nominee palatable to a large bipartisan majority, McConnell and every Republican senator voted to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/06/us/politics/gorsuch-supreme-court-vote.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">change the rules</a> to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. They then confirmed him on a mostly party-line <a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00111" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vote</a> for a lifetime appointment.</p><p>That has not stopped many of those same Republican senators from taking the opposite view now.</p><p>McConnell is currently blocking an organizing resolution that would allow Senate committees to operate, demanding that he keep his power to block bills.</p><p>"Leader McConnell expressed his long-held view that the crucial, longstanding and bipartisan Senate rules concerning the legislative filibuster remain intact, specifically during the power share for the next two years," his spokesman told the Associated Press on Tuesday.</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" data-aaad="true"></div><p>"The 60 vote cloture requirement (filibuster rule) requires bipartisanship and provides stability in our laws -- something we should all want in a big, diverse country of 330 million people," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnCornyn/status/1352605211370643456" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Friday.</p><p>Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) agreed, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley/status/1352600002934304784" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeting</a> on Friday, "Senate GOP majority fended off calls to end legislative filibuster incl from Pres Trump We didn't cave 2pressure 2go 'nuclear' on legis filibuster bc we knew weight of keeping Senate the gr8 deliberative body Framers of Constitution intended Its time for Senate Democrats 2do same."</p><p>On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1352361200307347456" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> a years-old quote from Biden explaining the rationale for the filibuster rule, opining, "Makes sense to me!"</p><p>According to a <em>Politico</em> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/democrats-mcconnell-filibuster-460967" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a> on Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) backed McConnell's efforts to force Democrats to keep the rule, saying, "You want to do it before there's an emotional, difficult, controversial issue. So that it isn't issue-driven, it's institution-driven."</p><p>Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the outlet that his party needs Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to say "we're not going to change the legislative filibuster."</p><p>Sens. McConnell, Cornyn, Grassley, Rubio, Collins, and Graham all voted for the 2017 rule change.</p><p><em>Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.</em></p>
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