In my youth, if Senator Morse wanted to filibuster he had to get up and speak. And keep speaking. On and on. And perhaps recruit a fellow objector to yield to, while he went to the potty.

Forget all this b.s. about pseudo filibusters (see notes 10 thru 13). Nowadays there is no cost–personal or political–to saying “I’m filibustering; table that legislation indefinitely.” Simply make them go back to *real* filibusters to block the legislative process.

“Two tracks?” B.S. Make some senator, or group of senators, stand at the podium and bring Congress to a screeching halt, stopping the *entire* legislative process, not just shuffling the bill they don’t like off to the “idle track.” Then we will see who has the heart, the cojones, and the political will to become known as the one(s) who brought the whole country to a standstill to get their way.

It’s a fair point. One alternative would be to have a graduated reduction in the cloture requirement that would reach a majority after one year. So maybe in 4-6 months the threshold should be 55. There is an argument for letting a minority block a bill that reaches the floor at the end of a Congress, so it depends how you want to define “The End.” In the Parliament Act of 1911, the Lords were able to block legislation for two years, which is roughly 1/2 of a Parliament given that it took time to pass the bill in the first place. So this proposal would be similar to that, even though now the Lords can only stop a bill for one year. I would suspect that if a filibustering minority could only delay bills for one year, though, that power would be used far less often.