A fresh wave of optimism has rushed over Senate Democrats that their long-held push to codify Roe v. Wade into law could be on the horizon.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday called for a Senate filibuster carve-out to pass federal abortion rights legislation, marking the first time she has said as much since becoming the Democratic nominee.
But obstacles will remain in the next Congress if the party manages to keep the Senate majority, even with the retirement of pro-filibuster Democratic caucus members who’ve previously stood in their way of rolling it back.
“I think we ought to have a talking filibuster,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) told the Washington Examiner. “That will solve the problem to protect minority rights and keep the people who are obstructionists from obstructing.”
Senate control is likely to hinge on Tester’s reelection, an increasingly difficult race that polls and election forecasters suggest is slowly slipping from his grip and tipping toward GOP rival Tim Sheehy.
Chamber rules simply require senators to notify leadership they are filibustering without any further stipulations, forcing nearly every measure to muster 60 votes to close debate and move to final passage. Tester has previously not supported eliminating the threshold.
Still, top Democrats were happy to follow Harris’s lead, who told Wisconsin Public Radio that the Senate “should eliminate” the filibuster to enact federal abortion protections.
“I am confident that many of our colleagues will do it exactly as Vice President Harris said, which is to make sure we restore the rights of Roe to every woman in this country,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the highest-ranking Democratic woman, told reporters.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told the Washington Examiner there was a “desperate need of filibuster reform” and that it should be eliminated for issues beyond abortion, such as voting rights.
“The filibuster has been incorporated into our procedure requiring 60 votes for virtually everything,” Durbin said. “I don’t think that was ever the intention of those who created it.”
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pumped the brakes. He declined to commit to altering the arcane rule in a move that likely offers a reprieve for Tester and other vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in battleground states.
“It’s something our caucus will discuss in the next session of Congress,” Schumer said.
With the retirement of Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who caucus with Democrats and previously prevented the party from altering the filibuster, Tester is likely to become the most prominent roadblock.
Harris stated in her Wisconsin Public Radio interview it was her preference for the 60-vote requirement to be eliminated for the sole purpose to “actually put back into law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”
Manchin and Sinema, Democrats turned independent, torched Harris and their former party for reigniting such a debate.
Manchin said in a statement he would withhold endorsing Harris over wanting to change a procedure that “stabilizes our democracy, promotes bipartisan cooperation, and protects our nation from partisan whiplash and dysfunction.”
“I have always said: ‘if you can’t change your mind, you can’t change anything,’” Manchin added. “I am hopeful that the Vice President remains open to doing just that.”
Sinema blasted Harris’s proposal as an “absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea.”
“To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide,” she posted on social media.
To that end, Senate Republicans have repeatedly vowed to retaliate with their own alterations.
Waiving the filibuster to confirm presidential nominations has been invoked by both parties in the past, first by Democrats in 2013 for all non-Supreme Court picks, followed by Republicans in 2017 for Supreme Court nominees.
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Murray rebuffed the notion Democrats would open the door for political payback and prompt the GOP to enact a nationwide abortion ban.
“What we are talking about is a simple procedure to allow whenever rights are taken away from someone, that the U.S. Senate cannot be blocked by a filibuster and to be able to restore those rights,” she said. “I don’t see Republicans talking about being able to restore abortion rights anywhere.”
