The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, agreed on Monday to seek an agreement with the Democrats, who hold the majority in the House, to establish organizational rules that allow the legislative work to be unblocked, after a five-day blockade by the minority party that put at risk the first measures of the new president, Joe Biden.
The confrontation took place over a congressional mechanism known as “filibusterismo” (
filibuster
, in English), which establishes that many of the main regulations must be approved with a majority of
at least 60 senators
, which allows the minority party to block them.
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Currently, both formations have 50 senators, but the majority are under Democratic control thanks to the fact that the vice president, Kamala Harris, serves as president and guarantees a casting vote.
Even so, it is a very tight majority, and it does not reach the 60 votes necessary for important decisions.
McConnell
refused in principle to negotiate any organizational matters
of the Senate's work
if the Democrats did not first commit in writing to maintain the filibuster mechanism
.
Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, and other members of his party
stated that they were against accepting this condition
, since they considered that it would mean giving space for a good part of Biden's plans to be blocked due to lack of enough votes.
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This deadlock has so far prevented the renewal of Republican-controlled Senate committees, who held the majority until they lost two key elections in Georgia earlier this month.
The Republican Senator from Ohio Rob Portman, considered a moderate profile and favorable to bipartisanship,
assured this Monday that he would not seek reelection in 2022
at the end of his term, citing the climate of political blockade on Capitol Hill as one of the reasons, because, in his opinion prevents "progress".
But, on the same day, two Democratic senators - Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona - explicitly declared that they were against eliminating the filibuster mechanism.
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For McConnell, senator from Kentucky, that represented a sufficient guarantee to abandon his institutional blockade.
"Today two Democratic senators publicly confirmed that they will not vote to end legislative filibustering," he said, "they agree with the opinion of the president and mine that no majority in the Senate should destroy the right of future minorities of both parties. to help shape legislation ”.
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"With these guarantees, I hope to go ahead with a joint power agreement," he concluded. Now it
remains to be seen if he will confirm this intention
and allow the renewal of important Senate committees.
Democrats were pleased with McConnell's words.
"We are glad that he has thrown in the towel and abandoned his ridiculous lawsuit," a spokesman for Schumer, a senator from New York, told NBC News on Monday night.
With information from NBC News, AP, The Washington Post and The New York Times.