Senate leaders reached a compromise last week on limiting the filibuster, an obstructive procedural tactic that has become almost routine on Capitol Hill. The best that can be said for the deal is that incremental progress is better than no progress at all.
The compromise struck Thursday between Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his GOP counterpart, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, would bar filibusters only on motions to begin debating bills and only if members of each party were guaranteed the opportunity to offer at least two amendments. Other changes would reduce the number of filibusters per measure and shorten the wait before voting on them.
Antifilibuster groups reacted with understandable dismay. They had wanted to require filibustering lawmakers to appear on the Senate floor to try to talk a bill to death. They also wanted Reid to plow through Republican opposition by using the so-called nuclear option, changing the filibuster rule on a simple majority vote.
Reid said he wasn't willing to take such dramatic steps because he thought they'd kill the filibuster, which he wasn't ready to do. But the compromise won't even stop the filibuster from being used day in and day out. In particular, the deal should have barred filibusters on lower-level executive branch nominees and required the minority to produce 41 votes to sustain a filibuster, rather than requiring the majority to come up with 60 votes to end it.
