Correction: it is no longer necessary for a Senator to keep talking on the floor to create a filibuster. Any Senator can now simply indicate a filibuster and require an immediate cloture to bypass it. This is sometimes called a “silent filibuster” but mostly it just kept the same name which prevents the public from being aware of the difference.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is only true because the Senate's floor time is valuable enough that leadership would rather move on to consider other bills than waste time on a real filibuster. The "silent filibuster" is not an official part of Senate rules.

People have been saying that Congress is gridlocked and ineffective, and that is true, by several subjective and objective measures. But even in the gridlocked state there are still a bunch of bills that are debated and passed. And it takes floor time to work on those.

[–] Clathrate_Gun@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

The "silent filibuster" is not an official part of Senate rules.

The silent filibuster results from a change to Senate rule #12, aka “Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of The Senate” that was made in 1970. It allowed the Senate, for the first time, to move on to the next bill in the event of a filibuster. So in effect there’s no longer a “talk it to death” requirement to prevent a bill from reaching a vote.