Northwest labor press., May 16, 2014, Page 9, Image 9

Sen. Merkley makes another push for filibuster reform
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is
making another run to reform filibuster
rules. “It’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ in the
U.S. Senate. The same thing is hap-
pening again and again,” Merkley said
in an email calling on citizens to sign
his petition demanding senators come
up with new rules.
In a little over a month, a minority
of Republican senators have been able
to kill bills via a filibuster that would
have raised the federal minimum wage
from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and a
Paycheck Fairness Act to close the pay
gap between men and women (women
make 77 cents for every $1 that a man
earns). Had the bills been allowed to
move forward, both would have won
majority support.
Incredibly, opposing senators didn’t
have to say a word to block the bill
(i.e. the classic Jimmy Stewart movie,
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).
That’s because a rule change some 40
years ago allows for a single senator to
simply announce opposition to a bill,
which then requires 60 of the 100 sen-
ators to vote to move forward.
Democrats hold a 55-45 edge over
Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
“Right-wing Republicans use the
power of the filibuster to prevent an up-
or-down vote on virtually all of our pri-
orities,” Merkley said. “And by abus-
ing the power of the filibuster, the
far-right has effectively hijacked the
U.S. Senate, bringing all progress to a
screeching halt.”
Last year, Merkley joined forces
with Democratic Sens. Tom Udall of
New Mexico and Tom Harkin of Iowa
to score a major victory by reforming
the filibuster rules for confirmations of
presidential nominees. Up to that point,
a minority of Republican senators had
blocked virtually every political ap-
pointee put forth by President Obama.
In renewing his push for filibuster
reform, Merkley wants to restore the
traditional filibuster and require an op-
posing senator to hold the floor and
speak.
“Enough is enough,” Merkley said.
Sign the petition and together we'll tell
the Senate it’s time for a change.”
To sign Sen. Merkley’s petition, go
to: www.reformthefilibuster.com/
2014/04/30/fix-filibuster-2014/
Senate breaks record for number of cloture
votes ever taken in a single Congress
Judged by cloture votes taken, this 113th Senate has now taken more votes to
try and break filibusters than any previous Senate in American history. Recently,
the Senate took three cloture votes, bringing the total number of cloture votes to
115 for this Congress — the highest number ever recorded in a single Congress.
Machinists re-elect Buffenbarger
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In na-
tional union election results announced
May 9, Machinists International Presi-
dent R. Thomas Buffenbarger and his
slate of incumbents defeated a chal-
lenge slate led by Connecticut railroad
mechanic Jay Cronk.
The tally was 23,545 for Buffen-
barger and 11,163 for Cronk. Portland
Boeing worker Pat Maloney — one of
the five challenge candidates for gen-
eral vice president — was the Cronk
slate’s number two vote-getter, with
12,138 votes.
Of about 550,000 eligible members,
a little over 6 percent voted. It was the
first contested election for the union’s
national leadership in over 50 years.
The Cronk slate announced it plans
MAY 16, 2014
to dispute the election results with the
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
DOL oversaw this election, which was
a re-run of national officer elections
held in January 2013 in which a DOL
investigation found merit to complaints
about election practices. The Cronk
slate alleges anomalies in the re-run
election voting results, and it accuses
the incumbent slate of using union re-
sources to campaign, and threatening
local union leaders with termination
and trusteeship if they failed to cam-
paign and vote for incumbents. A Buf-
fenbarger spokesperson denied the al-
legations.
Maloney said the challengers plan to
continue, and will run again in 2017 if
not sooner.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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