How Biden Could Fix the Senate

[Joanne98]

The question of whether Congress will fulfill the dream of every modern Democratic president and pass health reform now rests on the intersection of two of the most complicated bits of congressional procedure -- the Senate's filibuster rule, which has become a 60-vote supermajority requirement, and the budget reconciliation process, which sets time limits for debate and thus can be a way around the filibuster. The current plan is to avoid the filibuster by having the House pass the bill that passed the Senate last year and then using reconciliation to make changes.

This complex, but entirely legitimate, approach makes an unelected employee of the Senate, the parliamentarian Alan Frumin, a critical figure in the weeks ahead. The parliamentarian polices the procedural rules governing the filibuster as well as what can be legitimately included in reconciliation.

But the parliamentarian doesn't have the last word on Senate procedure -- that power belongs to the vice president, Joe Biden, in his constitutional role as president of the Senate.

If Biden is willing to exercise the power granted him in the constitution, he could do more than pass health care. He could establish a precedent that would later help him limit the filibuster rules that threaten to deadlock our system of government. He would not be the first vice president to use his power for good in this way.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_biden_could_fix_the_senate

[Captain Hilts]

1. I wish Hillary were majority leader instead of Reid. nt