Jayapal: I Wanted to End Filibuster, ‘My Concern’ Now Is GOP Will Bypass It on Immigration

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Briefing,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) stated that Democrats “should have gotten rid of the filibuster when we had control,” and she’s now concerned Republicans will bypass the filibuster to make changes on immigration in the tax and spending bill.

Jayapal said, “I would also say, Jen, that there’s a section of policy in this bill that nobody has really dug into that will have to go through the Senate parliamentarian, because, as you know, there’s not supposed to be policy in here. But my concern, and I have always said that we should have gotten rid of the filibuster when we had control, because we would have used it to pass higher minimum wage, we would have used it for getting money out of politics, for expanding the Voting Rights Act, things that are really necessary. What they are doing now is they are going to continue using it to make sure that they make those tax cuts for the billionaires permanent, and to do policy changes, if they don’t listen to the parliamentarian.”

She continued, “They have things in here like overturning the Flores agreement, which essentially allows for kids to be detained, immigrant kids to be detained indefinitely. … And given what they just did with the CRA in essentially bypassing the parliamentarian in getting — opposing California’s efforts to move to electric vehicles in California, they clearly are willing to do this again.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett