Wednesday morning, March 6, 2013, at 11:47 am EST, Senator Rand Paul started a talking filibuster in Congress. Being a homeschooler, this quickly became an opportunity to teach Munchkin about a filibuster and discuss what was going on in Congress today. I explained to her that the Senator had to remember to say, “without yielding the floor” every time he wanted to allow questions or supporting remarks because he had to hold the floor to maintain the filibuster. That also meant that he wasn’t allowed to take any bathroom breaks which made his filibuster even more impressive.
What is a Filibuster?
A filibuster is a tactic in the legislative process sometimes used in the U.S. Senate by opponents of a bill to block its passage. A Senator, once granted permission to speak by the presiding officer, may continue to speak indefinitely in an effort to delay or prevent a final vote on the bill. To halt the filibuster, the Senate must pass a “cloture” resolution by a three-fifths majority (60 votes).
Once we had talked about what a filibuster was, I went on to explain why Senator Paul started a filibuster this time. Upon learning why he was doing it and listening for a while, she said, “Go dude! Go”. I found myself chuckling at her response, and then I made the images above as it seemed so fitting.
Of course, we could leave it at that, but we decided that we needed to look more into the history of a filibuster and soon found out the 5 longest filibusters in our nation’s history which meant a couple of notebooking pages needed to be made. 😉
- The top record is held by Sen. Strom Thurmond at 24 hours and 18 minutes.
- 2nd longest record is held by Sen. Alfonse D’Amato at 23 hours and 30 minutes.
- 3rd longest record is held by Sen. Wayne Morse at 22 hours and 26 minutes.
- 4th longest record is held by Sen. Robert La Follette Sr at 18 hours and 23 minutes.
- 5th longest record is held by Sen. William Proxmire at 16 hours and 12 minutes.
The Filibuster notebooking pages are now part of the Marine Corps Nomads Homeschool Resource Library. They’re still free, but they’re now hosted right here. All of the free homeschool resources are available in one easy-access location. You can sign up for free access to the resource library below.
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