US Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA, 7) published an op/ed on the Huffington Post today calling for filibuster reform. He complains that the house repeatedly sent legislation to the senate this year—like extending the Bush tax cuts without the extension for the wealthy—only to have a minority in the senate, the GOP, block it.

For the last two years the House of Representatives has passed legislation addressing a range of issues, and sent it to the United States Senate for consideration. Rather than honestly arguing those bills in the Senate, Senator McConnell and his fellow Republicans repeatedly have prevented debate and votes on any measure they oppose or on any measure that might be perceived as politically positive for the president -- even if the legislation was originally proposed by Republicans. So, for two years, the Congress has been ruled by the Senate Republican minority. The United States government is no longer functioning on principles of majority rule, and this is entirely due to flagrant abuse of Senate rules.

The Senate is a deliberative body, and its minority members certainly should have a voice in the development of legislation. But Senator McConnell's use of the filibuster -- to block consideration of all manner of legislation -- is a cynical distortion of a long-established Senate procedure. Senate rules should not be twisted to prevent Congress passing laws which the elected majority deems necessary and appropriate.

Abuse of the filibuster and its action-stalling 60-vote threshold has resulted in a fundamentally corrosive fact that undercuts basic democratic principles: abusing the filibuster means that elections do not really matter.

The editorial is shy on specific reform ideas. We've got a message into McDermott's office to get more specifics.

This is all he says:

Senate rules can be changed, and several senators presently are working hard to modify them to overcome the vice-grip of the filibuster. On the first day of the new 112th Congress, January 5th, 2011, a senator may propose to change the filibuster rule. The vice president of the United States, the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, may determine that Senate rules may be changed by a simple majority vote of the Senate. Appeal of any ruling by the presiding officer may be subject to a simple majority vote.