{"id":16332,"date":"2010-04-22T07:21:41","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T13:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16332"},"modified":"2010-04-22T13:10:49","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T19:10:49","slug":"making-washington-work-for-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/making-washington-work-for-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Washington work for New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most common messages I hear from the people of New Mexico is a frustration with the way that business is conducted in Washington \u2013 or the fact that many important things don\u2019t get done at all. Today, the Senate Rules Committee<\/a> I serve on will start looking at one of the root causes for this frustration: obstruction in the Senate.<\/p>\n

In 2008, I was elected to the Senate amidst a resounding call for change. My colleagues and I arrived ready to tackle our country\u2019s biggest problems, but too often found that kinks in the system \u2014 rampant obstruction and entrenched special interests \u2014 pose significant obstacles to achieving real progress. We found a broken system that needs reform.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all the more frustrating that this obstruction has served to turn people off to the legislative process.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An Albuquerque resident recently summed up this sentiment in a comment on my\u00a0Facebook\u00a0page<\/a> when he wrote, \u201cI\u2019m done watching the government bicker and spin its wheels… I just can\u2019t stress out about this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can sympathize and I\u2019m working to fix it. I believe that with reform, the spirit of hope and change from 2008 can and will prevail.<\/p>\n

A graveyard for good ideas<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

In the Senate today, legislation often faces the threat of a filibuster \u2013 meaning a minority of senators can prevent a majority from acting. Most Americans\u2019 knowledge of a filibuster is based on Frank Capra\u2019s 1939 classic,\u00a0Mr. Smith Goes to Washington<\/a>. In the more than 70 years since that film was released, the filibuster has transformed from a rarely and judiciously used procedural tool of debate to a routine weapon of partisan obstruction.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, only 8 percent of legislation faced a filibuster, and in the 1980s it was 27 percent. However, between 2007 and 2009, the filibuster threatened 70 percent of legislation.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate result is that the Senate has become a graveyard for good ideas.<\/p>\n

One only has to look at the long and winding road of\u00a0health care reform\u00a0to know there is something seriously wrong with our system. And just recently, we saw another example, when a single senator used the Senate rules to play politics and ultimately prolong passage of an unemployment benefits bill that otherwise had wide bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

Most tellingly, more than 290 bills that have already been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives are now stuck in the Senate due to procedural delays and anonymous \u201cholds\u201d by single senators.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Option<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve proposed a simple way for the Senate to examine the rules that got us to this point and reform the system \u2014 the Constitutional Option. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution states, \u201cEach House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings…\u201d At the beginning of the 112th Congress, I will call on the Senate to exercise its constitutional responsibility to adopt its rules of procedure by a\u00a0simple majority vote.<\/p>\n

I recently discussed the Constitutional Option on\u00a0MSNBC\u2019s\u00a0The\u00a0Dylan Ratigan\u00a0Show, which you can watch below:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

By following the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0as the framers intended, and adopting the rules of our procedure next January, senators will have the opportunity to come together and vote to get the Senate back to business. It is my hope that a majority of senators agree that we have work to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m proudly not the first\u00a0New Mexico senator\u00a0to propose this. In the 1950s a group of bipartisan senators were frustrated by obstruction in the Senate \u2014 far less than what we see today \u2014 on some of the most critical legislation of the century. Anti-lynching bills were filibustered in 1922, 1935 and 1938, and anti-race discrimination bills were blocked almost a dozen times starting in 1946.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s own Clinton Anderson<\/a> led the charge for reform, and moved that the Senate fix its rules through the constitutional option at the start of the 83rd Congress in 1953. Sen. Anderson\u2019s persistence eventually provided the impetus for a compromise on Senate rules.<\/p>\n

As abuse of Senate rules has reached new heights, I am picking up where Sen. Anderson left off and pushing for change once more.<\/p>\n

One piece of reform<\/h3>\n

This is just one piece of reforming Washington. I\u2019m also fighting to reform the\u00a0campaign finance system\u00a0so that our elections are about the best ideas, not the biggest checkbooks. And I\u2019m committed to increasing accountability and transparency in all levels of our government.<\/p>\n

But all of these initiatives are threatened if our Senate doesn\u2019t work properly for the American people.<\/p>\n

Find out more about the Constitutional Option at\u00a0by clicking here <\/a>or on my\u00a0Fixing Senate Rules page<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Udall<\/em><\/a>, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from New Mexico.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The filibuster has transformed from a rarely and judiciously used procedural tool of debate to a routine weapon of partisan obstruction. The unfortunate result is that the Senate has become a graveyard for good ideas. I\u2019m pushing for senators to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-16332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}