From the “Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows” file:
President Donald Trump is demanding that the U.S. kill the filibuster rule, putting him at odds with the two Granite State Republicans running for U.S. Senate — and on the same side of the issue as Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen.
Meanwhile, Democrat Rep. Chris Pappas — who hopes to replace Shaheen next year — is part of an effort to add the filibuster rule to the U.S. Constitution. He’s a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which has proposed a resolution mandating that “debate upon legislation pending before the Senate may not be brought to a close without the concurrence of a minimum of three-fifths of the Senators.”
In a statement, the caucus calls the filibuster “the single most important rule for preserving bipartisanship in Congress. The 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture on a bill ensures that legislation must receive bipartisan support to become law, allowing lawmakers from both parties to play a meaningful role in the legislative process.”
Hassan and Shaheen — not to mention Trump — don’t agree. They both voted to kill the filibuster in 2022, when Democrat Joe Biden was president and their party controlled the Senate.
In fact, Shaheen has been trying to kill it on and off since she arrived in Washington.
In 2010, she co-sponsored a resolution with progressive Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to change the filibuster rules so that legislation would eventually pass with a simple majority. In 2011 and 2013, she backed another set of proposals to change or override the filibuster proposed by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
But in 2017, with Trump in the White House and a GOP majority, the two Democrats expressed a very different view. They both signed a letter defending the filibuster and declaring it vital to the working of the U.S. Senate. “We are united in our determination to preserve the ability of members to engage in extended debate when bills are on the Senate floor,” they wrote.
In March 2021, they both told CNN they opposed eliminating the filibuster.
Less than a year later, they both voted to kill it.
Neither Hassan nor Shaheen would answer questions about their fluid stance on the filibuster. Nor would they say if they would continue to vote to kill it if the GOP brought it up for a vote now, while Republicans hold the majority.
The filibuster issue isn’t likely to play a role in the race to replace Shaheen, given that Pappas and both of his GOP opponents want to keep it. Pappas has called it “an important tool to be able to stop bad policy from being able to go through Congress.”
Republicans Scott Brown and John E. Sununu — who have both served in the U.S. Senate as part of the minority party — agree.
“The Senate and the filibuster were designed to protect the interests of smaller states,” Sununu told NHJournal. “It’s outrageous that senators from New Hampshire would undercut their own power and effectiveness with such a foolish decision. That’s what happens when representatives blindly follow their liberal leadership. I’ll stand with New Hampshire every time.”
Brown said that while it’s “outrageous that Senate Democrats’ only priority is obstructing President Trump’s agenda at every turn, without the filibuster, the extreme left will ram through their smorgasbord of horrible ideas next time they get the keys to power.
“They will stack the Supreme Court, make Puerto Rico and D.C. states, take away our guns, speech, faith, and freedom, and everything else on their long list of extreme ideas.”
