Fix the Filibuster!
"On the first day of the new session the Senate convenes to pass its rules. For decades this has been a pro forma vote, with each new Senate adopting the rules of the last one. Udall's plan is to find fifty-one senators to vote no on adopting the previous set of rules, thereby opening a debate over a new rules package that would address the reformers' concerns and garner fifty-one votes to pass.Udall calls this approach "the constitutional option" because Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution declares that "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings." The only way to interpret "each house" on the first day of the Senate, before the body has actually passed a set of rules creating institutions like the filibuster, is as a simple majority." Download entire article in PDF format.
