Last night, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced a provision to change filibuster rules so that the minority party would have the responsibility of reaching the 41 votes needed to sustain debate instead of the majority party having to reach 60 votes to end debate. Under the current rules, a cloture vote can fail 59-0, meaning that not a single Senator in the minority has to show up to vote against cloture.
"The minority must always maintain the right to continue debate," said Sen. Franken. "But if the minority feels that strongly about an issue it should be their burden to continue that debate, not a supermajority's to end it."
The text of Senator Franken's amendment is available here:
http://franken.senate.gov/files/docs/20110105_Filibuster_JEN11085.pdf
Sen. Franken also co-sponsored legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that would reform several other Senate rules. The bill included provisions that would, among other things:
* Eliminate the filibuster on Motions to Proceed
* Eliminate secret holds
* Guarantee consideration of amendments for both majority and minority
* Ensure real talking filibuster debate
* Expedite nominations