Filibuster
A filibuster is a political procedure where one or more members of parliament or congress debate over a proposed piece of legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision being made on the proposal.
The most common form occurs when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure. The Senate rules permit a senator, or a series of senators, to speak for as long as they wish, and on any topic they choose, unless "three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn" (currently 60 out of 100) vote to bring the debate to a close by invoking cloture under Senate Rule XXII.
In January 2022, the Senate blocked a Democrat attempt to remove the filibuster that was blocking the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Senate voted 50-49 to pass the bill, falling well short of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster.
In 2021, Biden struggled to pass many important policies in the Senate. The Democrats hold fifty seats, which limited their power. The For the People Act aimed to strengthen voting rights but was stopped by a filibuster. Biden proposed a change to the rules to make it harder to use the filibuster. Democrats sought a special exception to protect civil rights bills from being filibustered. This effort failed, with fifty-two senators voting against it, including two Democrats, Manchin and Sinema.
Senate votes on cloture to end a filibuster
The filibuster was originally used only rarely when a senator felt that a bill was a major threat to their state. In the partisan age, the use of the filibuster has increased hugely. It is often used by a senator to block the passage of a bill proposed by the president of the opposing party. With huge increases in attempts to filibuster, there are also more motions of cloture proposed to end debate and stop the filibuster.