Opinion | The Best Way to Keep Congress From Getting Things Done

If the filibuster did not exist, it is hard to believe that anyone would invent it.As it stands, the Senate rule allowing unlimited debate is still in effect.But there are carve-outs — exceptions that allow the Senate to pass a bill or take action with a simple majority, as was true for nearly everything the chamber did through most of its 235-year history.

Under reconciliation, an expedited process for budget bills, the Senate can pass anything related to revenue, spending or debt with 51 votes: no filibusters allowed.In 2013, Democrats under Harry Reid ended the filibuster for most executive branch and judicial nominations and, in 2017, Republicans under Mitch McConnell did the same for Supreme Court nominations.On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio that she wants another exception to the filibuster.

“I’ve been very clear, I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” said the former senator from California.Harris is not the first Democrat to call for filibuster reform to secure federal abortion rights.Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization, President Biden told reporters that he believed “we have to codify Roe v.Wade into law, and the way to do that is to make sure that Congress votes to do that and if the filibuster gets in the way [there] should be an exception.”Biden caused little in the way of consternation with his call for weakening the filibuster.

Key Democrats, like Kyrsten Sinema, the now-independent Arizona senator, simply refused to budge.Harris, on the other hand, caused a minor controversy.“Shame on her,” said Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who will leave the Senate at the en...