Sen. Bennet Supports Eliminating Filibuster, Spokesperson Confirms

Denver CO

16 December, 2021

7:07 PM

Description

By Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline December 15, 2021 Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet supports eliminating the Senate filibuster, his office confirmed Wednesday. Bennet, a Democrat and Colorado's senior senator, had repeatedly criticized Republican "abuse" of the filibuster and signaled an openness to reforming it in recent months, but had not yet explicitly endorsed specific changes to the Senate's rules. A spokesperson for Bennet, however, confirmed to Newsline Wednesday that he supports eliminating the upper chamber's 60-vote threshold, which currently applies to most legislation. The confirmation followed an announcement earlier Wednesday by Bennet's fellow Colorado Democrat, first-year Sen. John Hickenlooper, that he would support "changes" to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation. Bennet's office pointed to recent comments in which Bennet discussed a variety of potential changes to Senate rules relating to the filibuster. His most extensive comments to date on the issue came in a September interview with E.W. Scripps. "I want the Senate to function the way the Founders designed it to function," Bennet said at the time. "It is not functioning that way as a result of the abuse of the filibuster, where everybody sits in their office while (Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell filibusters by remote control." "At the end of the day," he added, "after the minority has the right to have (a) debate, has the right to offer amendments … 51 senators ought to be able to move this country forward." Democracy functions only when people have access to reliable information about government and society. Colorado Newsline's mission is to be a trusted source of such information. Newsline is nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent, and it provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Colorado readers