Frank Lautenberg's Filibuster Reform Proposal

by: Hopeful

Wed Jul 28, 2010 at 02:44:37 PM EDT

Lautenberg's proposal is more modest. Called the Mr. Smith Bill (Lautenberg brought a cardboard image of Jimmy Stewart from the film to the hearing), the bill would allow the Senate majority leader to call an immediate cloture vote as long as there is no discussion occurring on the Senate floor and the deadline for amendments has passed. This would force filibusters to actually be conducted on the floor -- hence the "Mr. Smith" moniker -- if the opposition wants to take advantage of the two-day "ripening period" before the Senate can vote to end a filibuster...

Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer was enthusiastic about Lautenberg's plan, calling it "ingenious,"

Obviously when your "side" is in the minority the filibuster seems attractive, and both sides have made ample use of it, but there's really no argument that its routine use is a very recent invention, one that has no basis in the Constitution. One expert presented statistics that showed a remarkable change around the 1993-1995 Congress.  

Unfortunately, it is pretty disturbing to see that one official believed Lautenberg's proposal was poorly written:

Rybicki had a point to make, and a persuasive one: the Lautenberg and Bennet proposals are too vague. For example, Lautenberg's proposal works by allowing the majority leader to "move the question" on cloture. Rybicki noted that there is no such motion in the Senate rules. It is clear enough what Lautenberg meant, but the bill as written would be hard to implement.

Frankly I can't help but worry that the proposal was never intended to go into effect and is nothing . On the other hand, there's a lot of negotiations ahead so perhaps it's silly to nitpick a proposal at this stage.

(Don't know who Mr. Smith is? Go buy the movie.)

Update: Oops, I just realized that Lautenberg's testimony is online. It is excellent: