President Donald Trump wants Senate Republicans to kill the filibuster so they can jam through Sen. Mike Lee’s SAVE America Act, a budget, and the rest of his priorities. Utah Sen. John Curtis says he won’t do that.
“Under no circumstance will I support any effort to end or alter the filibuster,” Curtis wrote Thursday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
In the Senate, ending debate on most bills takes 60 votes. If supporters can’t get there, the bill stalls.
“It protects independence, not just party position,” Curtis wrote. “If the threshold moves to 50 votes from 60, that balance changes. The Senate begins to function more like the House. Individual members lose their ability to stop a bill. Leadership gains the ability to move legislation with a simple majority.”
Beehive State Politics Facebook group
If you're looking for substantive discussion about Utah political news instead of the usual social media free-for-all, this is the group for you.
Curtis points to his time in the House, where he says leadership ran everything and debate was limited.
“In seven years in the House, I didn’t have a single meaningful opportunity to influence major legislation. In the Senate, and as a freshman, I found myself in the thick of every major piece of legislation,” Curtis said.
He warns that if the filibuster goes away, the Senate “would become unrecognizable,” run by simple majorities. Legislation passed by one majority could quickly be undone by the next.
“Any party that does so wouldn’t be guaranteed survival. Their agenda would be guaranteed death come the next majority,” Curtis said.
Trump has repeatedly urged Republicans to scrap the filibuster, most recently to pass Sen. Mike Lee’s SAVE America Act. The bill would require voters to show proof of citizenship for federal elections and would curb mail voting. Voting-rights groups say the measure amounts to voter suppression and could disenfranchise large numbers of eligible voters. The bill doesn’t have support from a majority of Republicans, let alone the 60 votes needed to beat a filibuster.
