Barbara Mikulski Demands End To The Filibuster [View All]

Barbara Mikulski Demands End To The Filibuster As Pressure To Reform The Senate Mounts

Lucia Graves

During the extended debate over unemployment benefits on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) called for an end to the filibuster rule that for months has kept the Senate in a state of maddening gridlock. Discontent over the arcane Senate procedure swelled in recent months as a bill to reauthorize unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless languished in the Senate and 2.5 million Americans watched their benefits lapse.

"It's time we not only get the country moving, it's time we get the Senate moving," said Mikulski in a speech on the House floor. "We have to first look at reform for ourselves, and I want everyone here to know, I'm on the side and definitely part of the reform movement in this institution to get rid of out-of-date procedures that belong to another century whose only job is not to slow us down so that we... don't do anything at all."

First elected to the Senate in 1986, Mikulski is one of the most senior members of the
Democratic caucus and her 24 years in the Senate lend weight to her thoughts on the iinstitution


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