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Filibuster Reform: A Short Guide

The Senate rule has been modified over 160 times. It can be changed again to pass necessary voting rights protections.

Published: January 19, 2022

The Senate is currently debating the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, a bill that combined two pieces of historic legislation introduced last year. This transformative democracy reform package would set national baseline standards to protect voting access, end partisan gerrymandering, safeguard elections from sabotage, restore the critical protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and much more.

This essential bill has majority support in the Senate. The only thing standing in the way of strengthened protections for all voters is the filibuster. The filibuster has been modified over 160 times before, and it can be modified now to restore the Senate to a place of fulsome, public debate as well as pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

To learn more about the history of the Senate filibuster, read the following resources:

Restoring the Senate: Key Facts as the Senate Considers Rules Reform (January 2022)

Fixing the Senate Filibuster by Mira Ortegon and Colleen Olson (August 2021)

The Filibuster, Explained by Tim Lau (April 2021)

The Case Against the Filibuster by Caroline Fredrickson (October 2020)