Filibuster

Sen. Barbara Mikulski formally threatened to filibuster a bill to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service because of concerns she has about the proposed closing of Easton's mail processing center, the Maryland Democrat's office said Thursday. The bipartisan bill would allow the Postal Service to end Saturday delivery and offer buyouts to employees. It would not affect the Easton plant directly, but because the U.S. Postal Service supports the measure, Mikulski is hoping to use it as leverage.

I have one very simple question for the ultra partisan, liberal Sun. Will you and the disingenuous Democrats still be demanding filibuster reform if the Republicans take control of the House and Senate in 2014 ("Tom Perez and the 'nuclear option,'" May 20). I doubt it, but I'm just askin'. Gail Householder, Marriottsville

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul got a lot of attention Wednesday for mounting an honest-to-God filibuster of President Barack Obama's nominee for CIA director, John Brennan. The nation's political class marveled at his real-life Mr. Smith act, the funny stuff his fellow senators said as they took their turns in support - Sen. Marco Rubio, for example, referenced Jay-Z, Wiz Khalifa and "The Godfather" - and the reason he stopped 11 hours short of Strom Thurmond's filibuster record (it seems the late South Carolina senator was, if not stronger in his convictions, at least stronger in his bladder)

Republicans accuse Thomas E. Perez, President Barack Obama's nominee for labor secretary, of twisting the legal process in three cases in St. Paul, Minn., to suit his political purposes. But it is they who are twisting the Senate's role to "advise and consent" on presidential nominees for their own political ends, and in so doing they have smeared the reputation of a talented public servant and damaged the institution in which they serve. Mr. Perez made it out of committee on a party-line vote Thursday, but Republicans are still suggesting they may try to block his nomination on the Senate floor.

M r. Smith Goes to Washington" is more pertinent today then it was in 1939. It's also a more apt piece of programming for the AFI Silver this weekend than it would have been on Presidents Day. No political tool has become more tainted than the filibuster. Especially after Scott Brown's election to the Senate, even political novices have grown comfortable with technical words like "supermajority" (the votes needed to override a filibuster). The filibuster has become the element of choice to block appointees or legislation.

The announcement last week that South Carolina's Jim DeMint is leaving his Senate seat to run the Heritage Foundation caused some in Washington to wishfully think that perhaps the move might usher in a more congenial, if not cooperative, outlook in the U.S. Senate. But while Mr. DeMint set the gold standard for ideological purity (denouncing his own party's candidates from time to time when they failed to measure up to his tea party, ultraconservative viewpoint), there are still plenty in the GOP with the flexibility of a ramrod.

Two months after American voters made it clear they want effective government - and two years before the U.S. Senate's next opportunity to reform its broken rules - that "do nothing" chamber appears poised to fix its filibuster. In its present warped form, it permits a single, unaccountable member, without even taking the floor or speaking, to obstruct both debate and voting on critical legislation affecting 315 million Americans. That's why it's essential for Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin to join with as many of their colleagues as possible in support of Senate Resolution 4, which would authorize the following reforms: •require senators who filibuster to actually keep the floor and talk; •prevent filibustering a motion to proceed; •limit the number of motions needed to go to conference with the House; •cap post-cloture debate time on nominations at two hours.

Washington -- The solid phalanx of Republican senators who filibustered President Clinton's $16.3 billion economic stimulus package into oblivion had a field day finding little specks of possible pork in the proposal and then declaring the whole exercise a boondoggle.The suggested one-time injection of $2.5 billion into the community development block grant (CDBG) program was the whipping boy of choice.The editorial staff of The Wall Street Journal combed through a 4,000-item ''ready-to-go'' public works list compiled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors,projects that might or might not have been selected for CDBG funding.

The filibuster is back in the news, thanks to Sen. Rand Paul's nearly 13-hour talkathon on U.S. drone policy last week. Putting aside the merits of Mr. Paul's national security views, his feat of endurance was in the best tradition of the Senate. He used his right to unlimited debate on the Senate floor to draw the attention of his fellow citizens to an issue of profound national importance. Other recent filibusters are less noble. Last month, senators used the rules to delay, for little apparent reason, confirmation of their former colleague Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense.

O ne of the most perplexing things about contemporary Washington is that Democrats simultaneously hold the largest majority any party has had in the Senate in decades and are utterly unable to move forward with important legislation. The key to this paradox is the Senate rule that allows for the filibuster - unlimited debate on a motion that can only be stopped by a vote of three-fifths of the chamber, or 60 senators. So the reason nothing much is getting done in Washington is that filibusters are going on all the time, right?

Do the people of the United States know that the U.S. Senate voted favorably on several amendments to the gun control bill? A majority of senators approved amendments requiring background checks for online and gun show purchases, providing special oversight of mentally ill persons and setting forth other limitations on gun purchases. The number of senators voting for these amendments ranged from 52 to 58. All of these votes were for naught because the Republican Party called for a filibuster, and the Democratic Party leadership then pulled the bill from further consideration.

Legislation that would have placed stricter limits on where local governments could put speed cameras and required them to appoint ombudsmen to hear complaints died in the General Assembly Monday night. The legislation would have strengthened language prohibiting governments from entering into new contracts under which they paid private companies for each ticket issued, but would have allowed current contracts to stand. A Republican filibuster prevented a Senate vote on the measure as the General Assembly session neared its end. Gov. Martin O'Malley had planned to sign the compromise legislation, which was prompted by a Baltimore Sun investigation that documented erroneous tickets and other problems in Baltimore's program.

With a little less than three hours to go in the General Assembly, House Republicans have launched their version of a filibuster against a constitutional amendment imposing what they consider a too-weak lockbox deterring the transfer of money from the Transportation Trust Fund to other purposes. The Republicans are offering repeated amendments to the bill putting the amendment on the ballot, knowing they will lose on each but chewing up time needed to get the bill over to the Senate.  When House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell's amendment was rejected on an 89-49 vote, he urged all members who voted in the minority to explain their votes.

The filibuster is back in the news, thanks to Sen. Rand Paul's nearly 13-hour talkathon on U.S. drone policy last week. Putting aside the merits of Mr. Paul's national security views, his feat of endurance was in the best tradition of the Senate. He used his right to unlimited debate on the Senate floor to draw the attention of his fellow citizens to an issue of profound national importance. Other recent filibusters are less noble. Last month, senators used the rules to delay, for little apparent reason, confirmation of their former colleague Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul got a lot of attention Wednesday for mounting an honest-to-God filibuster of President Barack Obama's nominee for CIA director, John Brennan. The nation's political class marveled at his real-life Mr. Smith act, the funny stuff his fellow senators said as they took their turns in support - Sen. Marco Rubio, for example, referenced Jay-Z, Wiz Khalifa and "The Godfather" - and the reason he stopped 11 hours short of Strom Thurmond's filibuster record (it seems the late South Carolina senator was, if not stronger in his convictions, at least stronger in his bladder)

The best chance to get the U.S. Senate to do its job is not to withhold pay (although withholding campaign contributions might have done the trick) but to reform the Senate rules so that filibusters aren't used so routinely to gum up the works. Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to take action, but the reforms revealed Thursday fall short of the strong medicine the chamber, and the nation, so desperately need. Potentially the most far-reaching change Senator Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, have agreed to support is a rule change that would make it much more difficult to filibuster a bill prior to its coming to the floor.

The best chance to get the U.S. Senate to do its job is not to withhold pay (although withholding campaign contributions might have done the trick) but to reform the Senate rules so that filibusters aren't used so routinely to gum up the works. Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to take action, but the reforms revealed Thursday fall short of the strong medicine the chamber, and the nation, so desperately need. Potentially the most far-reaching change Senator Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, have agreed to support is a rule change that would make it much more difficult to filibuster a bill prior to its coming to the floor.

Two months after American voters made it clear they want effective government - and two years before the U.S. Senate's next opportunity to reform its broken rules - that "do nothing" chamber appears poised to fix its filibuster. In its present warped form, it permits a single, unaccountable member, without even taking the floor or speaking, to obstruct both debate and voting on critical legislation affecting 315 million Americans. That's why it's essential for Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin to join with as many of their colleagues as possible in support of Senate Resolution 4, which would authorize the following reforms: •require senators who filibuster to actually keep the floor and talk; •prevent filibustering a motion to proceed; •limit the number of motions needed to go to conference with the House; •cap post-cloture debate time on nominations at two hours.

The announcement last week that South Carolina's Jim DeMint is leaving his Senate seat to run the Heritage Foundation caused some in Washington to wishfully think that perhaps the move might usher in a more congenial, if not cooperative, outlook in the U.S. Senate. But while Mr. DeMint set the gold standard for ideological purity (denouncing his own party's candidates from time to time when they failed to measure up to his tea party, ultraconservative viewpoint), there are still plenty in the GOP with the flexibility of a ramrod.