Timeline of the Filibuster 1789: The first Senate rulebook is created.

i 1805: Vice President Aaron Burr urges the Senate to streamline its rulebook. He suggests removing the motion on the previous question, which was created to end debate and move to a vote, but was considered to be redundant. The House today uses the motion on the previous question to end debate and move to a vote.ii 1806: The Senate takes Vice President Burrs advice and removes the previous question motion from its rulebook. This creates the potential for a filibuster because there is no tool available to simply end debate and move to a vote.iii 1837: Based on differing criteria, scholars argue that the first filibuster is in either 1837, March of 1841 or June of 1841. In 1837, the Whig minority implements what may be the first filibuster to prolong debate in order to prevent Congress from expunging a resolution of censure against President Andrew Jackson.iv March 1841: Several senators, objecting to the firing of congressional printers, commence another event that some claim is the first ever filibuster. However, some scholars debate whether this is an actual filibuster, or just sharp criticism.v June 1841: Senators object to the hiring of new congressional printers and embark on yet another filibuster, in what others claim to be the first filibuster.vi 1908: Sen. Robert LaFollette holds an 18-hour long filibuster to protest a banking bill. At one point, hes brought in a mixture of eggs and milk for energy, but he spits it out, claiming that it was drugged (It was not, in fact, drugged, merely spoilt, although it still could have killed him if he had drunk the entire glass).vii 1917: In order to provide a method for ending the filibuster, cloture is established, which requires of all senators to vote to end the filibuster.viii 1917-1926: In the 10 years after cloture is established, there are 12 cloture motions -meaning there are at least 12 filibusters that members attempted to end through cloture.ix Filibusters not ended by cloture are difficult to measure, because the filibustering senator could have either given up, or the majority leader could have given up pursuing a vote on the bill. 1919: The first cloture motion that makes it to a vote occurs when the Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster against the Treaty of Versailles.x 1927-1936: Four cloture motions filed between 1927 and 1936.xi 1935: Huey Long holds a 15 hour filibuster to try to force an amendment to require Senate confirmation for the National Recovery Administration's senior employees to be

added to a law. Over the course of the filibuster, he analyzed the Constitution, took advice from the press about other topics to cover, and finally gave recipes for oysters and pot-likkers, among other things.xii 1937-1946: 10 cloture motions filed between 1937 and 1946.xiii 1939: The movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington creates the popular image of the filibuster.xiv 1947-1956: Three cloture motions filed between 1947 and 1956.xv 1949: The use of cloture expands to include motions to proceed. Cloture was previously used only to end a filibuster preventing or delaying a vote on a bill. With this change, it can be used to end a filibuster preventing the vote to bring a bill up for debate.xvi 1957: Sen. J. Strom Thurmond sets the record for the longest recorded one-man filibuster during his 24 hour and 18 minute filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.xvii 1957-1966: 16 cloture motions filed between 1957 and 1966.xviii 1959: The threshold for cloture is lowered from two-thirds out of the entire body of senators to two-thirds out of the senators who are present for the specific cloture vote.xix 1964: In an effort to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sen. Robert Byrd filibustered for 14 hours after the Senate had spent 57 days debating the bill.xx 1967-1976: 120 cloture motions filed between 1967 and 1976.xxi 1974: The Congressional Budget Act establishes budget reconciliation, which includes limits on debate, rendering filibustering impossible for the budget process.xxii 1975: The cloture threshold is lowered from two-thirds out of the senators who vote to three-fifths of the entire body of senators.xxiii The procedural filibuster is established by creating rules that allow other business to continue when a filibuster is in progress. The establishment of the procedural filibuster effectively eliminates the talking filibuster popularized by Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.xxiv 1977-1986: 166 cloture motions filed between 1977 and 1986.xxv 1987-1996: 314 cloture motions filed between 1987 and 1996.xxvi 1997-2006: 341 cloture motions filed between 1997 and 2006.xxvii 2005: In order to prevent the confirmation of controversial nominees to judicial courts, Democrats filibuster many appointments. In response, Republicans threaten a constitutional option to bar filibusters for judicial nominees, similar to the bar on

filibusters in the budget process. Democrats argue that this is a nuclear option, and the name stuck. In order to avoid such a situation, the bipartisan Gang of 14 lawmakers negotiates a compromise through which the filibuster on judicial nominations survives.xxviii 2007-2012: 385 cloture motions filed between 2007 and 2012.xxix December 2010: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) eight-hour so-called filibernie in opposition to the extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts brings back the ethos of the one-man, talking filibuster. The filibernie, though, is not technically a filibuster because the vote had been rescheduled for a later date, so Sanders speech does not delay a vote.xxx January 5, 2011: Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Tom Harkin (DIA) introduce a filibuster reform proposal to, among other things, reinstitute the talking filibuster and eliminate secret holds (by which a member can privately alert his party leadership of his intent to object to unanimous consent to proceed to a bill on the floor without making the objections public).xxxi December 13, 2011: No Labels releases its 12-point Make Congress Work! action plan, which includes a proposal to eliminate the filibuster on the motion to proceed and to restore the talking filibuster. The plan also includes a proposal to require presidential appointees to be confirmed or rejected within 90 days, and if they are not, they would automatically be confirmed after 90 days. xxxii May 10, 2012: Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) takes to the Senate floor and says that he has decided that it is important to have filibuster reform.xxxiii May 14, 2012: Common Cause files a lawsuit arguing that the filibuster as currently implemented is unconstitutional due to its conflict with the principle of majority rule. They file on behalf of four congressional plaintiffs: Reps. Mike Michaud (D-ME), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Hank Johnson (D-GA), and John Lewis (D-GA).xxxiv October 2, 2012: No Labels sends a letter to the Senate Rules Committee requesting filibuster reform, including elimination of the filibuster on the motion to proceed and a restoration of the talking filibuster.xxxv
i

Sarah A. Binder, The History of the Filibuster, The Brookings Institution, April 22, 2010, http://www.brookings.edu/research/testimony/2010/04/22-filibuster-binder. ii Ibid. iii Ibid. iv Martin B. Gold and Dimple Gupta, Constitutional Option to Change Senate Rules and Procedures: A Majoritarian Means to Over Come the Filibuster, The, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 28, no. 1 (2004): 205. v Gregory Koger, Filibustering: A Political History of Obstruction in the House and Senate (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RTdiO8rkpoC&oi=fnd.

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Ibid. David P. Thelen, La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit (Madison, WI: Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1986), http://books.google.com/books?id=5Bf-9DKd05cC. viii Binder, The History of the Filibuster. ix Senate Action on Cloture Motions, U.S. Senate, n.d., http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm. x Jessica Reaves, The Filibuster Formula, Time, February 25, 2003, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,423312,00.html. xi Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xii Huey Long Filibusters, U.S. Senate, n.d., http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Huey_Long_Filibusters.htm. xiii Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xiv Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), IMDb, n.d., http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031679/. xv Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xvi Steven S. Smith, The Senate Syndrome, Issues in Governance Studies 35 (June 2010): 30. xvii Thurmond Holds Senate Record for Filibustering, Fox News, June 27, 2003, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,90552,00.html. xviii Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xix Ezra Klein, The History of Filibuster Reform, The Washington Post, January 4, 2011, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/the_history_of_filibuster_refo.html. xx Civil Rights Filibuster Ended, U.S. Senate, n.d., http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm. xxi Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xxii Klein, The History of Filibuster Reform. xxiii Ibid. xxiv Thomas Geoghegan, Mr. Smith Rewrites the Constitution, The New York Times, January 11, 2010, sec. Opinion, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/opinion/11geoghegan.html. xxv Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xxvi Ibid. xxvii Ibid. xxviii William Safire, Nuclear Options, The New York Times, March 20, 2005, sec. Magazine, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/magazine/20ONLANGUAGE.html. xxix Senate Action on Cloture Motions. xxx Jordan Fabian, Filibernie: Sanders Rips Tax Deal for More Than Eight Hours, The Hill, December 10, 2010, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/133089-sanders-begins-filibuster-of-tax-deal-. xxxi Ezra Klein, Senate Democrats Unveil Filibuster Reforms, The Washington Post, January 5, 2011, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/senate_democrats_unveil_filibu.html. xxxii Morning Joe Talks Make Congress Work!, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bhyzJONbfI&feature=youtube_gdata_player. xxxiii Ezra Klein, The Senate Just Took a Big Step Towards Filibuster Reform, The Washington Post, May 11, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-senate-just-took-a-big-step-towardsfilibuster-reform/2012/05/11/gIQAmd4OIU_blog.html. xxxiv Common Cause, Complaint for a Declaratory Judgment, May 14, 2012, http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7Bfb3c17e2-cdd1-4df6-92bebd4429893665%7D/FILED%20COMPLAINT.PDF. xxxv William Galston, Nancy Jacobson, and Mark McKinnon, No Labels, letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, September 21, 2012.
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