U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
As U.S. Senate leaders from both parties pledged today that they won’t use the so-called “constitutional option” to try to change the chamber’s rules by a majority vote, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., stood in defiance.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in announcing a deal to change some of the Senate’s rules, pledged that neither will use the constitutional option in this Congress or the next.
Udall has led the charge to invoke the constitutional option to combat the use of filibusters that have led to gridlock in the Senate – an effort that failed earlier this week. The procedural move would utilize a provision in the U.S. Constitution that allows senators to change their rules on the opening day of a session by a majority vote. After the first day, it takes a two-thirds majority to change the rules.
Udall said today on the Senate floor that he will keep fighting for the constitutional option.
“That’s a good agreement for (Reid and McConnell),” Udall said. “It doesn’t apply to 98 other senators. Each senator under the constitution has his or her right to rely on those constitutional rights.”
Speaking to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. and his partner in the fight to reform the way the Senate does business, Udall said, “Other senators can say what they want to do, but we are going to stand and utilize our rights as we move down the road.”
“We’re hoping that we will be at a place where we have 51 senators – Democrats and Republicans – that are going to continue to look at this and find a better way to make this institution work,” he said. “I think we’re kind of stuck back in another century with some of these rules, and we really need to bring it up to date.”
Details of the deal
The deal announced by Reid and McConnell, which still needs (and is expected to receive) approval of two thirds of senators in votes that are taking place this afternoon, includes voting on the following proposals, according to a news release from Democrats:
- Eliminating secret holds, including the right of senators to pass their secret holds to other anonymous senators to keep a rolling secret hold.
- Eliminating the delaying tactic of forcing the reading of an amendment that has already been submitted for 72 hours and is publicly available.
- Exempting about a third of all nominations from the Senate confirmation process, reducing the number of executive nominations subject to Senate delays.
In addition, the leaders entered into a gentleman’s agreement to not use the constitutional option “in this Congress or the next Congress,” and to reduce the use of filibusters and efforts to block amendments.
Some of that was sought by Udall and Merkley, and today Udall called the changes “steps forward and in some ways significant.” In fact, one of the bills that will be voted on this afternoon is a proposal from Udall.
But Udall wanted more sweeping changes that either put an end to filibusters or at least required a senator to actually filibuster – rather than simply threatening it – in order to hold up a vote.
The efforts by Udall and Merkley to change the Senate’s rules this session with a majority vote died Tuesday night as the clock ran out on the artificially extended first day of the session. According to The New York Times, some Democrats opposed Udall’s efforts because they “are afraid the new rules will put them at a disadvantage should their party fall to a minority.”