Civics Deck: History of the Filibuster
The first successful filibuster was recorded in 1837. This process has frustrated senators over the years and there have been multiple attempts to abolish the rule.
Finally, in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson urged change and lobbied the Senate to adopt Rule 22. Rule 22 authorized a two-thirds vote to invoke “cloture,” or official closure to debate. Upon the vote of a supermajority of senators, the rule limits consideration of a pending matter to a final 30 more hours of debate. Rule 22 was first successfully applied in 1919. However, even with the new cloture rule, filibusters remained an effective means to block legislation, since achieving a two-thirds vote is difficult. tinyurl.com/History-Filibuster
Filibuster
See our original post at Facebook
