Normally, the Senate requires a 60-vote majority to pass any legislation—a high bar that makes it hard for the Senate to quickly pass major pieces of legislation. Budget Reconciliation, often referred to as just reconciliation, is a legislative maneuver that allows the majority to get around this 60-vote threshold.
The trick with must-pass bills is members of Congress (MoCs) can use them as an opportunity to attach policy changes, even if those policies would be difficult to pass on their own. The thinking is, if members can manage to get their policy priority into the must-pass bill, other MoCs will have to support it because they want to avoid a shutdown.
The Byrd rule has been law since 1990, and has been used successfully dozens of times to block so-called “extraneous” (unrelated) provisions that shouldn’t get passed through reconciliation.
The introduction of S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, reflects the growing support across the country to end the disenfranchisement of the district's 700,000 residents. In addition to being a critical democracy reform, D.C. statehood is also a racial justice issue. Historically, conservative politicians have prevented D.C. from becoming a state to prevent D.C.’s black residents from building or wielding their political power. It’s past time to give district residents a voice in Congress and the power to govern its own affairs.
While Indivisibles across the country are contacting their senators and demanding they move quickly to eliminate the filibuster, local Indivisibles in the critical states New York and Illinois are flooding the phones and social media of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Majority Whip Dick Durbin with the message: #BeBold and #EndTheFilibuster Now.
Donald Trump is an existential threat to our country. He has directly attacked our democracy and must be removed from office immediately. The attack of 1/6/2021 is just another chapter in an excruciatingly long novel titled ‘Why Trump is Unfit for Public Office.’ The Senate should return immediately to convict and remove him.
We applaud the House of Representatives for passing tonight’s resolution calling for Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke their powers under the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and immediately remove Donald Trump from office. But even after last week’s deadly coup attempt where a mob, at Trump’s urging, stormed the Capitol with intentions of causing life-threatening harm to Members of Congress and the Vice President himself, we do not expect Pence to finally do the right thing for our country and stand up to his boss.
At the start of the 117th Congress, House Democrats adopted new rules for the House of Representatives, which included reforms to the Motion to Recommit (MTR). While Indivisible’s preferred solution was to simply get rid of the MTR all together, the new reforms are an important step in the right direction.