Senate Filibuster Advantages

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There are many advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the Senate Filibuster rule. However before we get in to the advantages and disadvantages lets discuss what a filibuster is, according to senate.gov glossary terms a filibuster is “Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.” The first filibuster in Senate history was on March 5 1841 and lasted for 6 days according to time magazine. Since then there have been many mixed feelings regarding filibusters depending on which side of the debate you are on some love it and some hate it. When a Senate member uses filibuster they are …show more content…
In 1775 the Senate adopted new rules which 1 states that the Senator choosing to filibuster no longer have to stand in front of his or hers colleagues and 2 states that the Senate can conduct other business while the filibuster is going on this seems to be one of the great advantages that can about. The other advantage would that when a senator is not available they are still able to conduct a filibuster which is called a “Virtual Filibuster” (Ricky Berry, understanding the filibuster, nolabels.org). Along with the “Virtual filibuster” that came about the Senate had to come up with a way to allow the Senator to continue to filibuster, however not allow it to take so long that the Senate is not working at all so they did invoke the rule to where they can continue to work they also came up with what is called the Cloture. A cloture is a rule at which two-thirds of the Senate can vote to end the filibuster so the debate at hand can continue or a vote can be taken on the pertinent