NPR Removes Reference to President Trump's Effort to End Filibuster

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics The filibuster has long forced senators to compromise. Can it survive 2026? President Trump wants to do away with the filibuster in order to pass the Save America Act.

+ Politics The filibuster has long forced senators to compromise. Can it survive 2026? April 14, 20263:57 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered Eric McDaniel The filibuster has long forced senators to compromise. Can it survive 2026? Listen &middot; 3:51 3:51 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5771526/nx-s1-9729987" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript President Trump wants to do away with the filibuster in order to pass the Save America Act. But many Senate Republicans are reluctant, wary of what it would mean if they were to lose their majority. Sponsor Message AILSA CHANG, HOST: The Senate filibuster. At first, it meant a long speech that a lawmaker could use to obstruct a vote. But today, senators can filibuster a bill without even needing to speak. President Trump wants to end the practice in order to pass his proof of citizenship voting bill. Here he is stumping for it in Memphis last month.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you could get rid of the filibuster, it would be great. It would be great. Get rid of the filibuster and get it all done. CHANG: Is his pressure campaign enough? Here's NPR congressional reporter Eric McDaniel. ERIC MCDANIEL, BYLINE: You'd think there's nothing more perilous in politics than the flip-flop. But it seems like every modern Senate leader has been on all sides of the filibuster. When you're in the minority, it's a vital tool to preserve your rights and build consensus. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) CHUCK SCHUMER: Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. MCDANIEL: That was Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2017, when Republicans killed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. And here's Schumer in 2022, a majority leader trying to sidestep the tool in order to pass his party's own voting rights bill. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) SCHUMER: But the Senate was never envisioned to allow an absolute minority party veto. Never. In fact, the founders expressly rejected the inclusion of a supermajority requirement for the Senate. MCDANIEL: Mitch McConnell championed the filibuster as a tool that forces compromise when Democrats weakened it in 2013. Then McConnell weakened it himself a few years later after he became the Senate's majority leader. Now Republicans are contending with Democratic opposition to the SAVE America Act, which would require folks to show proof of citizenship before voting. Some of them want to do away with the silent filibuster and go back to making legislators talk until they can't anymore in order to force a bill to clear the filibuster's 60-vote threshold. Here's Utah's Mike Lee on "The Charlie Kirk Show" last year. (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW") MIKE LEE: You enforce the rules by requiring them to debate. And then the minute they stop debating - if they've exhausted either themselves physically or their right to speak - that moment, you can call the vote. MCDANIEL: It's, well, a lot harder in practice. Republican senators would have to stay in the Senate chamber to prevent other parliamentary shenanigans. And regardless, Majority Leader John Thune says that he just can't make the numbers work to change or end the filibuster. Here he is talking to Fox News in March. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) JOHN THUNE: We don't have 51 votes for that in the United States Senate. MCDANIEL: And maybe the math changes under pressure from Trump. Though, depending on how you're counting, the filibuster's lasted for nearly 200 years, so it's got momentum. And the case to keep the filibuster is clear enough. If you want laws to pass with more consensus, requiring more than a simple majority in order to pass them is useful. But in a Congress that already struggles to pass things, where virtually everything now gets filibustered, could lowering the bar add some life back to the Hill? (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT) SARAH BINDER: We have this notion that the filibuster's like this principle of unlimited debate to protect minority interests and so forth. But as we discovered, it's really just politics. It's brute-force politics. MCDANIEL: That's Sarah Binder, a political scientist at George Washington University, talking to NPR's Throughline podcast in 2022. And the question is, does the Senate need to do more to protect the viewpoint of the minority? Filibuster critics point out that every state already gets two senators, regardless of the size. That means if you live in a less populous place, like Wyoming, you effectively get more than 65 times the Senate representation that someone living in California does. For now, it seems like President Trump's hopes of adding proof of citizenship requirements to elections nationwide are dashed. But if history is any guide on the filibuster, you never have to wait that long for folks to change their mind. Eric McDaniel, NPR News, Washington. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(82)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();