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A filibuster is a tactic used in the United States Senate to delay or block a vote on a measure by preventing debate on it from ending. [1]: 2 The Senate's rules place few restrictions on debate; in general, if no other senator is speaking, a senator who seeks recognition is entitled to speak for as long as they wish.
When things actually happen on Capitol Hill, it’s frequently because senators find ways around the filibuster, the custom whereby a supermajority of 60 votes is required to pass legislation.
With Democrats now holding the Senate majority, talk of eliminating the filibuster has ramped up. "A filibuster is really extended debate, extended amending activity, whatever it takes to block ...
Rarely used for much of the Senate's first two centuries, it was strengthened in the 1970s, [60] and especially since the 2010s [61] the majority has preferred to avoid filibusters by moving to other business when a filibuster is threatened and attempts to achieve cloture have failed. [62]
The entire 14-hour and 50-minute filibuster, as broadcast by C-SPAN. On June 15, 2016, in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, launched a filibuster in the United States Senate, promising to hold the floor "for as long as I can" or until Congress acts on gun control legislation. [1]
With Democrats now holding the Senate majority, talk of eliminating the filibuster has ramped up. "A filibuster is really extended debate, extended amending activity, whatever it takes to block ...
The filibuster—an extended speech designed to stall legislation—began at 8:54 p.m. [a] and lasted until 9:12 p.m. the following day, a duration of 24 hours and 18 minutes. This made the filibuster the longest single-person filibuster in United States Senate history, a record that still stands as of 2025.
I used to argue that the filibuster was a valuable defense against tyranny by the majority. Now I see it distorting what Congress produces and shifting power to the White House.