The+Filibuster

The term "filibuster" has been in use since the middle-nineteenth century to describe the tactic of delaying legislative action in order to prevent the passage of a bill. The word comes from the Dutch freebooter, or pirate, and most likely developed from the idea that someone conducting a filibuster is trying to steal away the opportunity that proponents of a bill have to make it successful. In the earlier history of the U.S. Congress, filibusters were used in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate, but they are now much more a part of the culture of the Senate than of the House. Because the House is a much larger body than is the Senate, the House now has rules which greatly limit the <range type="comment" id="564670951_9">amount </range id="564670951_9">of time that each member may speak, which effectively serves to eliminate the filibuster as a mechanism for delaying legislation in the House. In the Senate, the smaller of the two bodies, there are now rules that can <range type="comment" id="564670951_10">constrain </range id="564670951_10">but not totally eliminate filibusters. The Senate <range type="comment" id="564670951_11">adopted </range id="564670951_11">its first <range type="comment" id="564670951_12">cloture </range id="564670951_12">rule in 1917, a rule which requires a vote of two-thirds of the Senate to limit debate to one hour on each side. The rule was changed in 1975 and now requires a vote of three-fifths of the members to <range type="comment" id="564670951_13">invoke </range id="564670951_13">cloture in most situations. The longest filibuster on record occurred in 1957, when Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina wanted to delay <range type="comment" id="564670951_14">voting </range id="564670951_14">on civil rights legislation. The filibuster was <range type="comment" id="564670951_15">conducted </range id="564670951_15">for 24 hours and 18 minutes on August 28 and 29, when Thurmond held the floor of the Senate by <range type="comment" id="564670951_16">lecturing </range id="564670951_16">on the law and reading from <range type="comment" id="564670951_17">court </range id="564670951_17"><range type="comment" id="564670951_18">decisions </range id="564670951_18">and newspaper <range type="comment" id="564670951_19">columns</range id="564670951_19">. It was his hope that this filibuster would <range type="comment" id="564670951_20">rally </range id="564670951_20">opponents of civil rights legislation; however, two weeks after the filibuster, the Civil Rights <range type="comment" id="564670951_21">Act </range id="564670951_21">of 1957 <range type="comment" id="564670951_22">passed</range id="564670951_22">.