Report: GOP Prepares 100-Day Agenda For Senate Takeover

[CBHagman]

44. The filibuster change applied to nominees, not everything.

Since the so-called nuclear option, there have still been cases where the GOP used the threat of a filibuster to derail legislation that had majority support. In fact that's what happened with the attempt to advance legislation undoing Citizens United. See second story below.

[url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/senate-leaders-said-to-agree-on-filibuster-rule-changes.html[/url]

[url]http://www.thenation.com/blog/181590/senate-tried-overturn-citizens-united-today-guess-what-stopped-them[/url]

Fifty-four senators, all Democrats and independents who caucus with the Democrats, voted Thursday for the amendment to clarify in the Constitution that Congress and the states have the authority to do what they did for a century before activist judges began intervening on behalf of wealthy donors and corporations: enact meaningful campaign finance rules and regulations.

But forty-two senators, all Republicans, voted no. As a result, Udall noted, the Republican minority was able to “filibuster this measure and instead choose to support a broken system that prioritizes corporations and billionaires over regular voters.”

The Republican opposition effectively blocked further consideration of the amendment proposal, since sixty votes were needed to end debate and force a vote. And, even if the Republicans had not filibustered the initiative, actual passage of an amendment would have required a two-thirds vote.