Filibuster stalemate stalls new Senate

A fight over the future of the filibuster stalled the Senate on the second day of the new Democratic majority, threatening to throw the chamber into disarray for the foreseeable future.

Democrats are rejecting a demand from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that they pledge to maintain the legislative filibuster as part of an overall organizing agreement that would set the rules for the now evenly divided Senate.

“Unfortunately, we are not going to give him what he wishes,” Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told reporters in the...