Advocates and opponents of changing the Senate rules will find
something to like in a new book hitting shelves next week that documents
the history of filibusters.
In "Defending the Filibuster," Richard Arenberg and Robert Dove outline their case for substantive reform without undermining the chamber.
The bipartisan duo push the case against an effort led by relative Senate newcomers Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to change the chamber's rules by a simple majority vote at the beginning of a new Congress.
Arenberg, a Senate Democratic aide for 34 years, and Dove, who rose through the ranks to spend 13 years as the Senate's parliamentarian under Republican patronage, issue a warning to advocates of using the blunt instrument of a simple majority to tweak Senate rules.
"Do not succumb to the temptation to permit a simple majority to rewrite the entire Senate rulebook at the outset of every Congress. This is a slippery slope," they write. "It will almost inevitably lead to strict majority rule of debate and amendment, turning the Senate into a smaller and less significant shadow of the House of Representatives."
Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/news/-216913-1.html?pos=hftxt
In "Defending the Filibuster," Richard Arenberg and Robert Dove outline their case for substantive reform without undermining the chamber.
The bipartisan duo push the case against an effort led by relative Senate newcomers Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to change the chamber's rules by a simple majority vote at the beginning of a new Congress.
Arenberg, a Senate Democratic aide for 34 years, and Dove, who rose through the ranks to spend 13 years as the Senate's parliamentarian under Republican patronage, issue a warning to advocates of using the blunt instrument of a simple majority to tweak Senate rules.
"Do not succumb to the temptation to permit a simple majority to rewrite the entire Senate rulebook at the outset of every Congress. This is a slippery slope," they write. "It will almost inevitably lead to strict majority rule of debate and amendment, turning the Senate into a smaller and less significant shadow of the House of Representatives."
Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/news/-216913-1.html?pos=hftxt
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