Biden Calls For Return to Traditional 'Talking Filibuster'

The White House has insisted for some time that President Joe Biden opposes eliminating the filibuster, as many Democrats want, but in an interview airing Wednesday, the president said he's open to changing the filibuster rule back to require senators once again talk on the floor to hold up a bill.

"I don't think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days," Biden, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009, told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Tuesday in an interview aired on "Good Morning America." "You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking."

When Stephanopoulos asked him if he's for bringing back the talking filibuster, Biden replied "I am. That's what it's supposed to be. It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning."

Reform advocates say the legislative filibuster, which describes any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill through debating it at length, offering procedural motions, or otherwise delaying or obstructing it, causes issues for Biden's agenda in the 50-50 Senate.

The president's answer differed from remarks White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also made on Tuesday, when she told reporters the president is "open to hearing" ideas on the filibuster but that he prefers "not to make changes."

Under current Senate rules, 60 votes are needed so that legislation can be debated and passed, meaning Democrats must have support from at least 10 Republicans before bills can advance.