holding the floor

The arcane Senate filibuster — used for decades after the Civil War to stop civil rights legislation, and then honed into a powerful obstructionist tool by Mitch McConnell — allows any senator to hold up a vote with even the threat of holding the floor indefinitely, and requires an insurmountable 60-vote supermajority to break.

However, not all power is maintained through holding the floor.

There is no firm yardstick for measuring how many filibusters have been launched over the years, partly because there are several different manifestations, including a single senator holding the floor or a group of senators vowing to block legislative progress.

Earlier this year, he suggested he might be open to the “talking filibuster,” requiring senators to slow a bill by holding the floor, but then grants a simple majority vote if they give up.

Even without a senator holding the floor, filibusters have forced senators into all-night and weekend votes to advance legislation, as happened during passage of the Affordable Care Act.