Senators: Time to Stop Gaming and Start Governing

After three consecutive days of cloture votes, Senate Republicans finally agreed to open debate on the financial reform bill. The bill aims to overhaul the financial system, calling for the most sweeping regulatory changes since the 1930s. Putting aside the merits of the bill, it’s clear that the filibuster was being used as a strategic maneuver to game the rules of the Senate, rather than as an opportunity for true debate.

Republicans defended their filibuster by claiming it allows more time for deliberation. But Monday’s vote was on the procedural motion to open the bill to debate, not on whether the bill should ultimately pass. Rather than discussing the bill on the public record, senators wanted to hammer out a deal behind closed committee doors. This deflects legislative accountability, leaving voters to guess what concessions were made to whom.

Because many Senate procedures rely on unanimous consent agreements, the objection of a single senator can delay proceedings for days, requiring 60 votes for cloture. Here, when Majority Leader Harry Reid requested unanimous consent to bring the financial reform bill up for debate, the objection of a single senator – Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – halted all proceedings. Proponents of the bill needed 60 votes to move the process forward, but lost by a vote of 57–41 that was almost entirely along party lines.

President Obama said he was “deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans voted in a block” and urged the Senate to “get back to work and put the interests of the country ahead of party.”

But it wasn’t just the Republicans who were playing the game. One of the two Democrats who voted with the Republicans was Senator Reid himself. When it became clear that the cloture votes would fall short of the 60 he wanted, Reid voted with the Republicans to take advantage of an arcane Senate rule allowing any senator who votes against cloture to call for a revote. On Tuesday, less than 12 hours from the first vote, and again on Wednesday, Reid scheduled more cloture motions on the bill, showing that Democrats too were willing to play the game of strategic one-upmanship. Perhaps even worse, the other Democrat to vote against cloture was Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska; he did so in a naked attempt to appease his richest constituent, Warren Buffett.

The goal of all senators, regardless of whether or not they support this bill, should be to discuss and debate the issue in order to reach a compromise that serves the needs of the people. Instead, senators were bargaining behind closed doors and employing arcane loopholes, essentially playing a game in which no one wins. The Senate finally reached a decision to open debate, but only after Reid made it clear that he would call for as many cloture votes necessary to muscle the bill through. The Senate should be commended for reaching an agreement, but it shouldn’t take constant threats and strategic maneuvering for the Senate to stop playing games and start legislating.