Political Quotes

“I share the concern of the proponents of this proposal to modify Senate rule XXII that the right to filibuster has been abused in the Senate in recent years. In the entire 19th century only 16 filibusters occurred. In the 26 Congresses from 1919 to 1970, there were a total of 50 votes on cloture motions, an average of less than 2 cloture motions per Congress. However, in the 103d Congress, the Senate's majority leader was forced to file a cloture petition to cut off a filibuster 72 times. The tactic was used repeatedly to stop legislation. Filibuster was piled upon filibuster until, at one point five were pending at the same time. While minorities in Congress have, in the past, used the filibuster on matters of fundamental principle, to force compromise, it has recently been used to reject, frustrate, and prevent compromise. In the case of the campaign finance reform bill in the last Congress, a filibuster was used to prevent a conference committee from even being formed to discuss and work out the differences between the House and Senate legislation. A filibuster for that purpose had not been seen in the more than 200 years of Senate history. However, we must be very careful not to discard the baby with the bathwater. The rules of the Senate protect the rights of the minority.”