WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. Mike Lee is pushing to change how the Senate filibuster works, lamenting that the procedural tool has gotten in the way of Republicans passing their agenda despite controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Lee has amplified the idea in several social media posts in recent days, urging a reform to the practice that requires 60 votes to end debate in the Senate before a bill can be voted on — a tool that Democrats have latched on to while in the minority to block legislation they disagree with.
Instead, the Utah senator wants to make it so that senators must actively block bills in order to avoid a vote in what is known as a talking filibuster.
“There are other ways of doing it beyond just getting to 60 votes,” Lee said in a video posted to X. “You can also do it by outworking them, by exhausting them. The moment they can’t feel the player, the minute they don’t show up to debate to oppose something we call the question (and) the vote gets taken at a simple majority threshold. It passes if you’ve got a majority.”
There are different ways to exhaust your opponents, Lee added. Lawmakers could get physically exhausted and therefore unable to speak for longer, or they could be blocked under rules that prohibit senators from speaking more than twice in one day if it’s about the same bill.
The idea of the “talking filibuster” has been endorsed by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkeley, and now Lee is embracing the idea as Republicans continually get thwarted by Democrats. That’s how the minority party was able to shut down the government, and lawmakers have been unable to overcome the 60-vote threshold to pass health care legislation.
By implementing a talking filibuster, lawmakers can maintain tools for the minority party to have some sort of leverage. But it would give Republicans the ability to more easily pass their agenda items without dismantling the filibuster altogether, an idea that President Donald Trump has demanded in recent months.
Lee has long defended the filibuster as a tool that is crucial to ensure debate and protect against partisan legislation. But the Utah senator has also expressed frustration that Democrats are blocking bills central to Trump’s and Republicans’ agenda.
“If we enforce the cloture rule, we could end cloture abuse. And we could end this perpetual tail-chasing model even when Republicans control the Senate and the House and the White House, as we currently do,” Lee said in an interview with Real America’s Voice.
It’s not clear how quickly, if at all, the Senate could decide to change chamber rules. Congress has already adjourned for its holiday recess and won’t return until early January.
But it could be an idea that picks up steam as several Republican senators have expressed support for ending the filibuster and Democrats have pushed for similar changes when they were in the majority.