Schumer Tells Republicans He’ll Keep the Filibuster

According to a senior GOP senator who spoke on condition of anonymity, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (R-NY) “has privately reassured Republican senators in recent weeks that he would not change the rules and is committed to keeping the filibuster,” Politico reports.

Jonathan Chait: “What this means is that the decision to bottle up the agenda of the next Democratic president is being made right now, in private, in a secret deal between Schumer and Senate Republicans.”

“Schumer is surely not alone among Democrats in his fondness for retaining the Senate’s antiquated supermajority requirement… But Democrats are deluding themselves if they think that, during the next Democratic administration, they can keep it in place without provoking mass indignation from their base. The filibuster has already been pared back twice in the last five years. Everybody knows the rules can be changed.”