Finally filibuster reform

For filibustering senators in the minority party hoping to delay or block presidential appointments, it’s finally, officially time to shut up and stand down.

In a 52-to-48 vote Thursday, the Senate effectively ended its ability to filibuster executive and judicial appointments, excluding Supreme Court nominations. Now, instead of the 60 votes previously required to halt a filibuster, a simple majority will suffice.

It’s an unprecedented move — certainly the most substantial al- teration to congressional bylaws in modern history. But considering the state of congressional gridlock, nearly any measure to alleviate partisan brinkmanship is more than welcome, and the fact that such legislative action proved necessary points to the stagnation that has long stymied the 113th Congress.

As the year draws to a close, congressional budget talks remain on the fence, steadily increasing the likelihood of another government shutdown in early 2014. Gun control laws drafted in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings have seen little to no visible progress, even as the first anniversary of the tragedy approaches. Immigration and tax code overhauls have stalled.

Such setbacks have come largely to define Congress under President Obama’s tenure. Rigid partisan lines, rarely crossed in favor of compromise, have dictated a pattern of federal inefficacy.

Perhaps nowhere is this pattern more evident than in the case of presidential appointments to executive and judicial offices. Over the first five years of Obama’s administration, the number of filibustered nominations constituted a starkly disproportionate share of all such instances throughout U.S. history.

Twenty of 23 filibusters regarding district court nominees in this nation’s history took place during the Obama administration. The delays in approval are record-setting, even in cases with no substantiated objections to the president’s nominations.

And when those delays escalated into open refusals, as with recent Republican attempts to block appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, action to prevent further federal logjams appeared warranted.

The decision was far from hasty — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had demonstrated willingness to come to the table to form more permanent solutions with Senate Republicans — and many argued it should’ve come sooner, given the unparalleled level of Republican obstructionism during Obama’s administration.

The federal government is stagnating. It’s regrettable that congressional unwillingness to compromise has led to this — the only way to facilitate legislative action is to rewrite policies that have stood for centuries. But the simple truth remains: Republicans have tarnished and abused a longstanding practice in our nation’s system of checks and balances to a degree that necessitated its complete alteration.

Republican anger is understandable; one of the party’s oft-used legislative weapons has been rendered all but useless. It’s possible the party will redouble its obstructionist efforts in the wake of losing the filibuster, but hopefully that won’t come to pass. Inaction at the federal level needs to end, and with any luck, the filibuster’s demise will go a long way toward stopping this malaise.