Reply #27: The Rise Of Cloture: How GOP Filibuster Threats Have Changed The Senate

[BrklynLiberal]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/the-rise-of-cloture-how-gop-filibuster-threats-have-changed-the-senate.php

It's true that there has been a decades-long uptick in the use of cloture filings -- often to overcome filibuster threats -- by whichever party is in the majority, but the best measurement of that trend shows an explosion since Republicans were consigned to minority status after the 2006 election.

Check this out:



These are the numbers on cloture over the last several decades. Often, but not always, cloture is employed by senate majority leaders in response to filibuster threats from the minority. Cloture isn't always necessarily correlated with filibusters, but broadly speaking, the two often go hand in hand.

What's particularly striking here is the GOP's use of filibuster threats, and the correlated increase in Democratic cloture motions. Take, for instance, the huge spike in cloture motions filed from the Republican-led 109th Congress in 2005-2006 to the Democratic-majority 110th in 2007-2008.

"It is the most striking in history," American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Norm Ornstein told TPM.

What happened, Ornstein says, is that during the last two years of President George W. Bush's second term, Republicans offered "no initiatives to speak of."
<snip>
Things heated up about 35 years ago, when the Senate voted to change its cloture rules, lowering the filibuster-ending requirement from 67 votes to 60.

At the same time, the Senate was becoming more partisan than it had ever been, Ritchie said. Before the cloture change, strict party-line votes were relatively rare. But in the years that followed, the ideological spectrum of each party began to shrink, leading up to today, when, as Ritchie put it, "we have much more party discipline right now than we've ever had."

With senators closely toeing the party line in a way that Ritchie said they rarely had before, senate majority leaders of both parties have in recent decades begun filing for cloture more and more frequently -- largely as a way to gauge whether they have 60 votes for a bill before they expend time and effort on it on the Senate floor.

While Ritchie went to great pains in our discussion Monday to paint the rise of cloture as a bipartisan phenomenon, it's not entirely clear that's true. For instance, the two largest spikes in cloture filings in the last 20 years seem to be motivated, at least in part, by Republican obstructionism.

When Republicans were a Senate minority in 1991-1992, there were 59 cloture filings. When President Clinton took office, with Republicans remaining the minority in the Senate, that number shot up to 80 in 1993-1994.

When Democrats reclaimed the Senate majority in the 2006 midterm elections, cloture filings shot up from 68 in 2005-2006 to a record 139 in 2007-2008.
<snip>

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http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm



Senate Action on Cloture Motions
CongressYears Motions Filed Votes on Cloture Cloture Invoked
111 2009-2010 102 60 49
110 2007-2008 139 112 61
109 2005-2006 68 54 34
108 2003-2004 62 49 12
107 2001-2002 72 61 34
106 1999-2000 71 58 28
105 1997-1998 69 53 18
104 1995-1996 82 50 9
103 1993-1994 80 46 14
102 1991-1992 59 47 22
101 1989-1990 37 24 11
100 1987-1988 53 43 12
99 1985-1986 40 23 10
98 1983-1984 41 19 11
97 1981-1982 31 30 10
96 1979-1980 30 20 11
95 1977-1978 23 13 3
94 1975-1976 39 27 17
93 1973-1974 44 31 9
92 1971-1972 23 20 4
91 1969-1970 7 6 0
90 1967-1968 6 6 1
89 1965-1966 7 7 1
88 1963-1964 4 3 1
87 1961-1962 4 4 1
86 1959-1960 1 1 0
85 1957-1958 0 0 0
84 1955-1956 0 0 0
83 1953-1954 1 1 0
82 1951-1952 0 0 0
81 1949-1950 2 2 0
80 1947-1948 0 0 0
79 1945-1946 6 4 0
78 1943-1944 1 1 0
77 1941-1942 1 1 0
76 1939-1940 0 0 0
75 1937-1938 2 2 0
74 1935-1936 0 0 0
73 1933-1934 0 0 0
72 1931-1932 2 1 0
71 1929-1930 1 0 0
70 1927-1928 1 0 0
69 1925-1926 7 7 3
68 1923-1924 0 0 0
67 1921-1922 1 1 0
66 1919-1920 2 2 1
Total 1220 889 387