White House: Biden to outline filibuster changes in 'weeks'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Friday that President Joe Biden would speak in the coming weeks about moving to “fundamentally alter" the filibuster or even eliminate the legislative roadblock that empowers the Senate minority as he aims to pass sweeping voting laws and secure the nation's credit.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said Americans should “stay tuned” about what changes Biden would embrace, as he appears to be warming to changing the Senate rule. Biden has previously stated he was supportive of requiring that lawmakers physically hold the Senate floor to sustain a filibuster, but on Thursday suggested he could support eliminating it entirely for some issues.

In a CNN town hall, Biden said that if Republicans refuse to provide the votes necessary to raise the debt limit — as they threatened last month before backing down on the eve of a potential government default — "I think you’ll see an awful lot of Democrats being ready to say, ‘Not me. I’m not doing that again. We’re going to end the filibuster.’”

He predicted that eliminating the 60-vote threshold to end debate on most legislation would be “difficult” beyond the debt limit, which he called a “sacred right.”

“Voting rights is equally as consequential,” Biden added, suggesting he would be open to filibuster changes to pass the long-stalled Democratic legislation as well as “maybe more” on unspecified issues.

Psaki on Friday declined to elaborate on Biden's remarks, only to say that Biden believes “we are at an inflection point on a range of issues" and that “not getting voting rights done is not an option."

“I think the president will have more to say about this in the coming weeks," she added.

Biden on Thursday suggested that he had not moved sooner to support changes to the filibuster to avoid...