“The Senate can modify its rules however it wants,” Phillips writes. “So if senators want to end the filibuster just for one item, like a bill on voting rights, they can do that with a simple majority vote.”

This is just false. The Senate absolutely has the power to set its own rules, but there are very specific procedures the Senate must go through to change those rules, and the permanency of the rule change is absolutely affected by which method is chosen .

The most common way Senate rules are changed is through unanimous consent. The Senate can adopt any new rule or suspend any existing rule by unanimous consent. These are usually short-term agreements related to specific bills that set the length of debate or the number of amendments agreed to for a debate. Most Senate’s business is done using unanimous consent.

Senate rules can also be changed by statute. This is how the reconciliation process was created by the Budget and Control Act of 1974. It was also used to set up a 50-vote threshold on raising the debt limit last week. Like any other legislation that goes through the Senate, legislation that changes Senate rules needs 60 votes to pass the Senate. That is why 14 Republicans were needed to change Senate rules to allow for a one-time 50-vote threshold vote to raise the debt limit.