Senate Filibuster Essay

Members of Congress are tasked with many important duties and responsibilities. The three primary duties of Congress are to write laws, oversee the implementation of laws, and serving the needs of their constituents. The lawmaking process is affected by filibusters, committees, such as House Rules and Conference, oversight, and casework.

A Senate filibuster occurs when a Senator speaks indefinitely on the Senate floor in order to cause a delay. This delay can be a delay of action or discussion of a bill that is on the floor, or it could be to delay other actions and business of the Senate. Filibusters cause there to be less progress, but can result in progress for a particular party. An example of a filibuster is Ted Cruz’s 21 hour and 18 minute filibuster of Obamacare. He wanted to defund it, and spoke endlessly in order to halt all other action on the floor. There are two ways to end a filibuster. One is the filibuster stops speaking or sits down. The other is the other members of the Senate exercising a cloture. A cloture is a procedure for ending a debate and taking a vote on the current bill. Filibusters have a great impact on the vote on a bill and therefore the lawmaking process. …show more content…
The Rules committee is in charge of managing the flow of legislation on the House floor. The Rules committee is capable of making a law easier or harder to pass by the ordering it is placed. The Rules committee manages the House in order to make things run more smoothly as well. This allows for more progress in the lawmaking process. A Conference committee is a committee composed of both members of the House and the Senate. The Conference committee is in charge of taking the different versions of the bill from both houses and matching them to an agreement. This reconciliation allows the bill to please both