In tracing the filibuster back to its roots in the pro-slavery pretextual political theory of John C. Its author spent the first months of 2021 making the rounds of MSNBC panels to make that case to the already-convinced. In his book Kill Switch, Adam Jentleson, a top aide to Reid until the latter’s retirement in 2017, captures the evolution of these and other changes in rules and culture that have transformed the Senate from an occasionally open and productive legislative body into a rigid and insular one in which little matters other than the partisan body count, which is in itself profoundly unrepresentative of the preferences of voters as a whole.īecause the book arrives at a moment when the legislative filibuster is the hinge on which voting rights and most of President Biden’s agenda after the American Rescue Plan (passed through a tortured budget procedure that requires only 50 votes) depends, Kill Switch has been read mostly as an extended case for filibuster reform. With all available slots for amendments occupied by placeholders that change only a word or two, the majority leader can exercise absolute control of the agenda, leaving individual senators irrelevant pawns, politely asking for a chance to participate. senator means that you don’t have to ask permission to offer an amendment.īut that experience is as outdated as “I’m just a bill…” McConnell, expanding on a precedent set by his immediate Democratic predecessor, Harry Reid of Nevada, routinely employs a once-arcane tactic known as “filling the amendment tree” to ensure that there’s no opening for new initiatives. Watching these sad spectacles from the perspective of a former Senate staffer, albeit from the 1990s, I wanted to shout at the TV: “Here’s how you get the Senate to consider your idea: You stand up, ask for recognition and say, ‘I’ve sent an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.’” After that, the Senate might take up the amendment, debate and vote on it, or the senator proposing it might agree to withdraw it in exchange for, say, a promise by a committee chair to hold hearings on a freestanding bill. From Mark Warner to Josh Hawley, senators from both parties, all ideological factions, and all levels of seniority have run up against the same impassive resistance. Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson Ī frequent sight on C-SPAN’s feed from the Senate floor over the last few years has been a senator passionately pleading for the institution to consider some new idea or piece of legislation, while acknowledging that such entreaties would leave the diffident Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, unmoved.

Kill switch by adam jentleson