Tweak Senate filibuster to protect elections, fight climate change

Despite having popular support, urgent issues like addressing climate change are stalled in the U.S. Senate, hostage to the Democrats’ razor-thin majority.

With Western North America in flames, and unprecedented floods across the globe, you’d think that addressing climate change would be an easy lift.

But it’s not.

The greed of the oil companies and the cravenness of their congressional toadies muck up any progress. The status quo works just fine for Big Oil’s bottom line. But when our democracy fails to respond to serious crises, it makes sense to examine what’s wrong with the system.

In the same way that the fossil fuel industry’s political and public relations consultants led the war against science in responding to the climate crisis, a new propaganda war is playing out over the heart of our democracy: elections. Former President Donald Trump continues to pound away on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and that widespread voter fraud was the culprit. And just like the cynical lies used to block measures to combat global warming, evidence for claims of widespread voter fraud simply does not exist. Yet millions believe those lies.

As a result, states across the nation are debating and implementing new ways to make it harder to vote, under the guise of fighting that nonexistent widespread voter fraud. The Big Lie of a stolen election also is being used to remove elections administrators who based their actions on facts, not ideology regardless of party affiliation.

This is a very dangerous turn of events. It is not hard to see the road to authoritarianism if they succeed.

What should be done? Among the pile of important issues stuck in the molasses of Senate decision-making is a proposal for Congress to establish a voting "floor" below which no state can go. That floor would include basic voting rights that make casting a ballot easier, not harder.

The measure, introduced as Senate Bill 1, matches an already passed House version. The bill relies on the nation’s "best practices" when it comes to elections, including automatic voter registration and nationwide early voting. The bill also would restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act, require independent redistricting in all states, and establish a voluntary system of public financing that relies on small donations — not big campaign contributions.

But it’s stuck in the Senate mud. Senate rules say that 60 votes are needed to avoid a filibuster that can stop legislation in its tracks. In the current Senate divide — both parties having 50 members — uniform Senate Republican opposition is blocking approval of the legislation.

Unless something is done about limiting the filibuster, it’s hard to see a path to success in approving the elections measure.

But there is a way. The Senate has trimmed back the use of the filibuster rule in the case of approving federal judges. Most recently, in April 2017, the Republican Senate majority changed the rule to allow a simple majority to approve U.S. Supreme Court nominees, which enabled Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch to obtain a vote.

Why not apply the rule for appointing Supreme Court nominees to measures to protect American democracy?

New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer has to decide whether to make such a move. Of course, he needs all Senate Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to the change, and not all of those senators are on board right now.

Schumer is the majority leader because he is an expert in moving that chamber. If and when he makes his move could determine the future of American democracy.

With so much at stake, the Senate must act — to both reduce the existential threat posed by global warming, as well as to preserve our democracy. Let’s hope it does. The alternatives are harrowing.

Opinions expressed by Blair Horner, executive director of NYPIRG, are his own.