Adam Schiff takes aim at filibuster in hope of progressing liberal agenda
Rachel Schilke
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Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) will make abolishing the Senate filibuster “priority No. 1” should he win in 2024, and he is willing to gamble the Democrats‘ slim majority to do so.
Schiff said in a Tuesday interview with Newsweek that his goal is to eliminate the filibuster to move the liberal agenda forward in policy areas such as abortion and climate change, a move that several centrist Senate Democrats, such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), along with Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), have dismissed, claiming the filibuster forces bipartisanship.
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The filibuster is a procedural action in the Senate that prevents legislation from advancing unless it receives 60 votes, compared to a simple majority. Only 50 votes are needed to remove it, but given that several centrist Senate lawmakers have expressed their opposition, it could prove difficult to get a simple majority to undo the filibuster that has been around since the 1850s.
If he can remove the filibuster, Schiff will take the chance that Democrats and Republicans will constantly undo each other’s sweeping policy measures, such as universal abortion protections versus a nationwide ban or green energy requirements versus fossil fuel protections.
“I would rather have dramatic swings in policy between the parties than have the kind of gridlock we have today,” the California congressman said.
Polling shows that polarized measures from both sides are not popular. However, Schiff believes that even if Democrats lose the Senate to Republicans, GOP lawmakers will take a hard-line conservative approach to policy that will turn voters away from the party.
In the end, voters will ultimately prefer sweeping Democratic policies to sweeping Republican ones, Schiff believes.
“It will allow us to move aggressively forward,” Schiff said. “And if the Republicans try to take the country aggressively backward, they will be the shortest majority in history. And I am more than comfortable with that kind of accountability.”
If elected to the Senate and the filibuster is abolished, Schiff said he would work to pass several measures that would likely have been dead on arrival due to the filibuster.
“If we’re successful in doing away with [the filibuster], we can reestablish reproductive freedom, we can protect our democracy, and we can attack climate change even more vigorously, just as we did the last few years,” Schiff said.
Schiff brushed off concerns that he may have difficulty making it into the Senate or continuing his work in the House after Republicans voted to censure him over his investigation into then-President Donald Trump and Russia. He said despite the fiery battle between himself and some Republican leaders, Congress is still capable of “doing things on a bipartisan basis.”
He even hinted that behind closed doors, the raging battle isn’t as dramatic as it appears.
“Privately, Republicans have apologized and acknowledged to me the absurdity of what they’re doing, including the censure, so no, I don’t view it as an impediment to getting things done,” Schiff said.
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The California Senate race is gearing up to be one of the highest-profile intraparty Senate campaigns of the 2024 cycle. In California’s primary system, the top two candidates in the March 2024 primary, regardless of party, are the only ones who advance to the general election in November 2024.
Schiff’s campaign war chest is significantly larger than that of his opponents, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Katie Porter (D-CA). However, recent polling shows Porter with a slight edge, 19%, over Schiff, 16%.