Keep the filibuster but change other Senate rules that promote delay

How do we get the Senate working again? First, we should reduce floor debate time for executive nominees from 30 hours to eight or less. The Senate could debate and vote on five or more nominees a week, instead of just one or two. Interestingly, this rule change was adopted for a short time by the Senate in 2013, under Harry Reid, as part of a temporary agreement to fill nominations. It worked then, and it would work now.

Second, we should lower the vote threshold on the “motion to proceed,” which begins legislative debate and amendment consideration, from 60 votes to 51. Almost every bill in the Senate currently requires two votes of 60 senators, one vote to start debate and another to end it. We should change this rule to allow the majority party to open debate, while protecting the minority party by keeping the threshold to end debate at 60.