MONTGOMERY – Republicans plan to begin limiting debate and filibusters by Democrats in the Senate, according to State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham).
Senate Republicans met for a caucus meeting on Thursday during a recess and are now going to begin invoking cloture to limit debate and filibusters on Republican bills that would normally take hours to pass due to Senate rules on debate.
Republicans have a supermajority in the Senate.
"I understand the process I think that has been discussed by the majority, and I just want to say that I respect every process that our rules will allow us to do. I respect every last one of them. By me acknowledging that same respect I just want you to respect the fact that I won't move from this mic until we sine die so whatever number of clotures that need to be done from now to then, you can just go ahead and get the sheets and put them in there because I won't move," Smitherman said on the Senate floor on Thursday.
He continued, "I think in 2012 we set a record in here for clotures because of what I just said."
"I have no problem with whatever approach is going to be taken because we have rules and those rules they have to be used by anyone that wants to use them. I just wanted to say that again that it's not like we cloture and everybody is happy and we leave and go home and come back and we're ready to pick up as business as usual. Be ready to do your cloture and that's the way it is. These confirmations…unless we devote two or three straight days to them, I hate to tell you we probably won't get through with them. Some of these folks are probably not going to get confirmed. That's unfortunate but that's just the way it is. We are going to cloture and that's going to take time. Every cloture bill will take about a minimum of 25 minutes and a maximum of about 45 minutes. Depends on how big the bill is, depends on how long it takes to read them and do all of that. I think everybody has considered that and that's fine. I respect that. I won't move from this mic until sine die. I'm not going to move," Smitherman added.
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