Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has endorsed a plan that would change the filibuster rule to require dissenting legislators to speak continually against a bill.
Speaking over the weekend, the Illinois Democrat said he supported a proposed change put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid earlier this month.
“If the Republicans are willing to interrupt the business of the Senate and bring it to a halt, they should be willing to interrupt their dinner plans,” said Mr. Durbin, the Senate majority whip.
Mr. Durbin said the latest vote on President Obama’s American Jobs Act proposal, which failed to muster the necessary 60 votes, was the latest sign that the U.S. Senate must change its current process.
“The filibuster kept us from passing the entire bill,” the Illinois Democrat said. “There is opposition to certain parts. We will have to create a bill that can pass so we can have some parts [of the American Jobs Act].”
Mr. Durbin’s comments come as Senate Republicans have challenged Mr. Reid’s proposal, saying it undermine the Republican minority in the Senate. Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said that if Mr. Reid wants to improve the bill process, he should “reinstate the rule that was changed.”
Writing earlier the week, Mr. Reid defended his decision last to change the Senate rules to stop Republicans from requiring votes on amendments once the Senate has voted to move the legislation to final passage has restored order to the chamber.
“The Senate rule change we made last week has been inaccurately described, including by Marc A. Thiessen on this page, as a resort to the ‘nuclear option.’ But rather than a nuclear option that would have forever altered the character of the Senate by limiting the minority’s ability to challenge legislation, the change we made Thursday was a return to order,” Mr. Reid wrote in a Washington Post piece.
