Senate Majority Rules? Senator Wants Showdown on Filibuster Reform

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2010 — -- Their majority dwindling, some Senate Democrats are planning a showdown on the first day of the new Congress over limiting Republicans' ability to hold up legislation through filibusters.

"We don't want to give the minority the ability to block the majority from governing," Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a leading proponent of filibuster reform, told ABC News.

According to Udall, momentum is building behind his effort to amend Senate Rule XXII, which allows 3/5ths of the Senate -- or 60 members -- to invoke "cloture" and end debate. Failure to clear that 60-vote hurdle leaves a bill on the table, effectively killing it, and is commonly referred to as a modern "filibuster."

Udall proposes that senators who wish to hold up a piece of legislation be required to engage in a "talking filibuster," in which they would continuously speak on the floor, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"-style, rather than simply using a failed cloture vote to kill a bill.

Udall also wants to eliminate so-called "anonymous holds" that allow any senator to issue a silent objection, freezing a bill or nomination.

In the 111th Congress, which ran from 2009 to 2010, Democrats successfully achieved cloture 63 times, breaking through more Republican-led attempts to filibuster than ever before. But 28 times, Democrats were unsuccessful, leading to the defeat of measures that had majority support -- like the DREAM Act, which would extend a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children.

"There's unprecedented abuse that's gone on the last two years," Udall said. "These filibusters have delayed things. They have obstructed the ability of the Senate to do its job."

Republicans note Udall, a freshman elected in 2008, has never served in the minority in the Senate. They question whether enough of Udall's colleagues -- there will be 53 senators in the Democratic caucus next year -- will back his proposal knowing it's possible the GOP, with 47 members, soon could control both houses of Congress.

"All [Democrats] need to do is watch [incoming House Speaker] John Boehner over the next two years, and say, 'Do I want that in the Senate?'" Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told ABC News.

Under Boehner's leadership, House Republicans pledge to repeal health care reform and permanently extend tax cuts, which they can easily accomplish with a simple majority vote.