House Democrats quiet on DCCC chair's call to nix Senate filibuster

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and congressional Democrats hinting at a run for a seat in the upper chamber are silent on whether they agree with their party’s House campaign arm calling for the end of the filibuster.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., published an opinion piece calling on the Senate to remove the filibuster — the chamber rule that gives the minority party in Congress more of a voice in the legislative process.

"Democrats must eliminate the filibuster, a shameful anti-democratic relic of Jim Crow, so that we can secure the right to vote and fulfill our promises to the American people," Maloney wrote.

Fox News reached out to the DSCC as well as Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who recently announced his candidacy for Senate, and the other Democrats reportedly eyeing a run for the upper chamber asking if they agreed with the op-ed.

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None of them — the DSCC; Ryan; as well as Reps. Conor Lamb, Chrissy Houlahan and Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Cindy Axne of Iowa and Ron Kind of Wisconsin – responded to Fox News’ request for comment.

‘Removing the filibuster has come under fire from both sides, with moderate Democrats like Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Arizona's Kirsten Synema, backing the procedural measure which was first utilized in 1837 according to the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

The filibuster is a legislative practice unique to the Senate where a bill can be killed on the floor via a senator holding the floor by standing and speaking until the time for a measure to be voted on expires.

Democrats have attempted to label the filibuster as "racist" in their controversial plan to change how the Senate functions. Even President Biden, himself a former senator from Delaware, called the filibuster a "relic of the Jim Crow era."

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"We demand an urgent end to the racial, racist Senate procedural — this procedural tool," Rep. Cory Bush, D-Mo., said. "This tool that blocks us from what we need, what we have to have to survive and to thrive. Blocking us from getting on with the business of protecting the communities that we were elected to serve."

The recent spike in filibustering, however, came from the Democrats themselves last year. The Democrats also set the record for the lowest filibuster rate during the 115th Congress in 2017.

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Biden’s shift on the filibuster came as he rose to the presidency. In 2005, while he was still a senator, Biden defended the filibuster saying it was not about preventing nominees or legislation from going forward.

"At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill — it’s about compromise and moderation," he said.

Houston Keene is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find him on Twitter at @HoustonKeene