The winding series of Senate procedural votes that went late into the evening could have profound implications for California’s longstanding efforts to reduce air pollution. It also established a new, narrow exception to the Senate filibuster even as Republicans have insisted that they won’t try to change Senate rules.
Democrats strongly objected to the move, delaying the votes for hours as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., cleared the way procedurally for Republicans to bring up three House-passed resolutions that would block the rules. The Senate could pass the resolutions later this week.
At issue are the three California rules — phasing out gas-powered cars, cutting tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curbing smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
There’s one important detail that you might be missing here: Republicans are coming for the filibuster indirectly despite profusely saying how much they valued preserving senate rules
They are overriding the senate parliamentarian to do this. They are carving out the filibuster without saying they’re doing so. Right now it’s on some more technical details, but they are setting precedent that they can ignore the parliamentarian. The senate parliamentarian is the one who decides what counts as budget related for reconciliation (which is used as a narrow way around the filibuster strictly for budget). If they can just declare anything budget related and ignore the parliamentarian, they can push all kinds of stuff through that they otherwise couldn’t get through now