[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 13 (Friday, January 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S96]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               FILIBUSTER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on a totally different matter, 
while business proceeds on the floor, the Democratic leader and I are 
continuing to flesh out the structure of this 50-50 Senate.
  When Leaders Lott and Daschle wrote a similar agreement 20 years ago, 
there wasn't a need at all to reaffirm the basic standing rules that 
govern legislation here in the Senate. It was safely assumed that no 
majority would break this rule for short-term gain.
  Floor remarks surrounding those 2001 discussions specifically cite 
the legislative filibuster as an important and unquestioned part of the 
backdrop that lay beneath the negotiations on the finer details. It was 
assumed no one would ever take that step.
  After the fact, Leader Daschle, the Democrat, praised the legislative 
filibuster as a crucial rule. President Biden has praised this 
distinctive feature of the Senate on many occasions.
  Our current Democratic colleagues used it liberally--liberally--over 
the last several years when they were in the minority. More than two 
dozen signed a bipartisan letter in 2017 saying our Republican majority 
should not break the rule by brute force. Let me say that again. Two 
dozen Democrats signed a bipartisan letter in 2017 saying our 
Republican majority should not break this rule by brute force. I 
agreed. I didn't do it. President Trump was not happy with that. He 
tweeted against me numerous times because I didn't put an end to the 
legislative filibuster. So the Democrats used it constantly, as they 
had every right to. They were happy to insist on a 60-vote threshold 
for practically every major bill I took up.
  So we will continue to request that our Democratic colleagues 
reaffirm this standing rule of the Senate, which they have been happy 
to use on many occasions, I can attest. If we are going to truly 
replicate the 2001 agreement, we need to reaffirm this crucial part of 
the foundation that lay beneath it.

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