PODCAST: Sen. Jeff Merkley: Fixing the Filibuster

The Senate is broken. Senator Merkley wants to fix it. Listen to his solution.

What the heck is the filibuster?

"Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley" by U.S. Department of the Interior is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

“The term filibuster—from a Dutch word meaning ‘pirate’—became popular in the 1850s, when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill.” US Senate.

In practice, the filibuster is meant to protect the minority party from being steamrolled by the majority. When a senator launches a filibuster, 60 senators must vote to end it by invoking cloture. This is a high bar to cross at a time marked by partisan discord, which means that the filibuster can effectively kill legislation.

Why is Senator Merkley trying to end it?

The Senator kindly joined me and Nishant on the Fix It podcast to outline his solution. Give the episode a listen here (link to Spotify episode).