Letter to Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the Senate - Continue Rules Reform to Fix Broken Senate

Letter

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Leader McConnell:

As you know, we introduced resolutions on the first days of the 112th and 113th Congresses to reform the Senate rules and allow the body to function as our founders intended. At the time, many Republicans derided these efforts as a "power grab" by members of the majority party.

We write today to notify you that we will introduce the reform proposals again at the beginning of the 114th Congress, when we are in the minority. It is our hope that you will allow the Senate to debate these rules changes, as well as any others offered by our colleagues, and that each can receive an up or down vote. Many members on both sides recognize the recent dysfunction in the Senate and we believe that a full and open rules debate at the start of the new Congress is a necessary step towards restoring a healthy legislative process.

We are greatly encouraged by reports that the next majority is leaning towards retaining the most recent change lowering the cloture threshold for most nominees. This change has allowed critical executive and judicial vacancies to be filled in a more timely fashion in line with long standing Senate traditions, as well as restored the constitutional majority standard for advice and consent.

While there has been much discussion of how the new majority will approach the question of changes to Senate procedures, one of the most critical changes you could make would be to establish a standard process for considering any proposals to amend the Senate's rules at the beginning of each Congress. Over the years, Senators of both parties have stated that Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution gives the Senate the right to adopt and amend its rules at the beginning of a new Congress by a simple majority vote - what has become known as the Constitutional Option. It has been used numerous times since the cloture provision was adopted in 1917, and has led to significant reforms such as the amending the filibuster rule to the three-fifths threshold in 1975.

We encourage you to use the Constitutional Option at the beginning of the 114th Congress to allow substantive debate on potential rules reforms, followed by majority votes on each proposal. We believe this will lead to the adoption of sensible changes to the rules that have a lasting impact on the body. For example, Senate rules could be improved to restore a healthier and more open floor amendment process, which you have made many recent public commitments to provide, and to institute a "talking filibuster" that encourages that the filibuster return to being a tool that is used sparingly. We believe rules reform is a preferable option over "gentlemen's agreements" by leadership or bipartisan coalitions of members, such as the "Gang of 14" in the 109th Congress. While these arrangements may have short-term benefits, they often deteriorate and lead to greater mistrust and dysfunction, as we've seen in this Congress.

The unprecedented use of the filibuster, filling the amendment tree, and other procedural tactics, by both parties, has prevented the Senate from getting its work done. The Senate needs to return to its historical practice of operating as a deliberative yet majoritarian body, when filibusters were rare and bipartisanship was the norm. We believe the proposed rules changes in our resolution provide common sense reforms that will restore the best traditions of the Senate and allow it to conduct the business that the American people expect.

We look forward to working with you on further Senate rules reforms in the 114th Congress.

Sincerely,

Source