"The American people believe Congress is broken," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the floor Thursday morning. "The American people believe that the Senate is broken. And I believe that the American people are right."
With that, the Nevada Democrat set in motion a fight over changing the Senate's filibuster rules that has been years in the making. There were roughly 67 senators on the floor for Reid's remarks, which is very rare for the Senate.
The move for a rule change comes after a series of Republican filibusters on Obama nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Reid said on the floor that he would like to see an up-or-down vote on nominations, not including the Supreme Court. Currently, those nominees need to receive 60 votes in order to cut off debate and move to the up-or-down vote.
The Senate, Reid said, has "wasted hours and wasted days between filibusters." The need for change, he said, "is so, so very obvious." He added, "It's time to change the Senate before the institution becomes obsolete."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, second in command in the Republican Senate leadership, has already tweeted to call Reid's floor speech a "temper tantrum." Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke for about three minutes before Reid spoke.
McConnell came to the floor following Reid's speech, calling the rules debate a failed distraction from Obamacare. "This strategy of distract, distract, distract is getting old," he said. The filibuster challenge reminds Americans, McConnell said, of the Democrats "power grab" on Obamacare. Democrats, McConnell said, have attempted to "cook up a fake fight over judges."
The Kentucky Republican managed to squeeze in a joke at the expense of President Obama: "If you like the rules of the Senate, you can keep them!"
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