Just Emailed and called Sen Murray and Cantwell office

[rsmith6621]

URGING THEM to get rid of the 60 votes required to pass bills in the Senate.....asking them to go back to the simple majority since the Senate sets ground rules in the very early days of the new congress.... I do not believe the DEMS will loose any seats or at least as many as the networks think but I think it is the only way we can get anything done.... I think the DEMS will maintain a majority in both houses.

[Suich]

1. Doesn't it take 60 votes to pass the bill

to go back to a simple majority?

:shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. No, and this is obscure

the first day of the first session the Senate votes on all the rules with a simple majority as well as leadership posts.

So theoretically they can reduce the filibuster this way. They could even get rid of it if they wanted to.

Happened three times in the history of the Senate, and the number (60 in this case) is mostly tradition.Look at section five part two of the Constitution... oh hells bells, here is the quote:

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

The rules making happens on the first day, right after the swearing in.

[Suich]

3. Thanks! I did not know that!

:hi: