[ti:What Is This ‘Filibuster’ Americans Are Talking About?+++美国人说的冗长演说和核选择是什么意思?] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]This week, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to accept [00:04.88]Donald Trump's nomination for the Supreme Court. [00:10.20]The president has asked Congress to approve federal judge [00:14.64]Neil Gorsuch, who is 49 years old. [00:19.44]If he is approved, Gorsuch will fill the position [00:23.52]that has been open since February 2016, [00:27.68]when Justice Antonin Scalia died. [00:32.40]Under the U.S. Constitution, [00:34.72]the president nominates Supreme Court Justices, [00:38.04]and Congress decides whether to approve them. [00:42.88]If Gorsuch is approved, he will be permitted [00:45.80]to stay on the Court for the rest of his life, [00:49.01]and to help determine the meaning of the country's laws [00:53.00]-- including on disputed issues related to guns and abortion. [00:57.84]He would restore the 5-4 conservative majority before Scalia's death. [01:05.88]In the days leading up to the Senate's decision, [01:08.96]many people are arguing about the vote. [01:13.04]Two words especially are coming up: [01:16.12]filibuster and nuclear option. [01:20.12]Democrats, who in general do not support Gorsuch, [01:23.52]are threatening to filibuster. [01:26.76]And Republicans, who support him, [01:29.36]are threatening to use the nuclear option. [01:33.28]But what do these words mean? [01:36.72]A filibuster is a way of delaying a vote. [01:41.68]The political party with the smaller number – or minority [01:47.08]– in Congress can use it to prevent lawmakers from voting. [01:53.68]The filibuster has been part of Senate rules since the 1800s. [02:01.88]Historically, senators filibustered by speaking for many hours [02:08.16]-- often overnight -- to block votes. [02:13.40]For example, during the 1930s Senator Huey Long of Louisiana [02:20.36]spoke against bills he said favored the rich over the poor. [02:27.20]Once he talked for 15 hours, the Senate Historical Office says. [02:34.92]Long filled the time by reading from William Shakespeare's plays [02:40.20]and sharing his favorite food recipes. [02:45.20]Now, senators do not usually talk continuously to filibuster. [02:51.76]Instead, they insist that the majority party come up [02:56.56]with 60 votes to end debate and schedule a vote. [03:02.92]If the majority party falls short of 60 votes, [03:07.64]the vote is blocked. [03:11.16]Democrats, who are in the minority party in the Senate, [03:15.88]say they will filibuster the vote on Gorsuch. [03:21.84]But Republicans who want Gorsuch to start hearing cases right away [03:27.04]are preparing to counter the Democrats' move. [03:31.68]Under Senate rules, lawmakers can stop a filibuster. [03:37.56]If 60 out of the 100 senators agree, [03:41.64]debate can be stopped and a vote scheduled. [03:46.32]But Republicans do not have the 60 votes to stop the Democrats' filibuster. [03:52.80]Only 52 of the lawmakers are Republicans [03:56.36]and not enough Democrats will support their move to stop the filibuster. [04:02.16]And that explains why Senate Republicans say they will use the "nuclear option." [04:09.16]In this case, the phrase means to change a rule in the Senate. [04:14.53]Republicans will move to change a rule that would allow a simple [04:19.40]majority of senators to end debate and schedule a vote. [04:24.88]A rule change only requires a majority vote. [04:29.96]This change in Senate rules was first described as the "nuclear option" back in 2003. [04:39.68]The reason: Some compared a difficult political situation in the Senate [04:46.92]to the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. [04:54.08]It was said that nuclear deterrence [04:57.88]-- that both nations had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other [05:04.04]-- meant neither country was likely to attack the other. [05:09.30]Gregory Koger teaches political science at the University of Miami in Florida. [05:18.00]As was the case with the Soviet Union and the U.S., [05:22.36]Koger said, Democrats and Republicans know the party [05:27.56]that approves the "nuclear option" will pay a price. [05:33.44]For Republicans, it will come when Democrats reclaim the Senate majority [05:41.76]and are able to confirm Supreme Court justices with a simple majority. [05:49.48]Koger said the Senate has long worked on the common belief [05:54.12]that "nobody gets everything they want," [05:58.32]and that compromise is needed to get things done. [06:04.12]A vote to end the filibuster for Supreme Court judges, he said, [06:10.64]"signals the end of that way of doing things." [06:16.52]The current fight over the Gorsuch nomination [06:19.96]goes back to the Obama administration. [06:24.00]Republicans blocked votes on many judicial and administration nominees [06:29.52]from President Barack Obama, a Democrat, particularly in his second term. [06:37.04]Senate Democrats responded by changing Senate rules in 2013. [06:43.36]No longer would 60 votes be needed to end a filibuster [06:48.20]against judicial nominees and top positions in the government. [06:53.56]But the filibuster remained available for Supreme Court nominations [06:58.96]-- a rule Senate Republicans are ready to change this week. [07:04.32]Republicans took over the Senate majority from Democrats in 2015. [07:10.40]And in 2016, Republican leaders refused to hold hearings or vote [07:16.92]on Obama's final nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland. [07:23.64]Republican leaders said the choice should go to the next president. [07:29.08]And now Trump, a Republican, is president. [07:33.72]Less than two weeks after taking office, [07:36.88]he chose Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. [07:41.24]I'm Bruce Alpert. [07:43.12]And I'm Dorothy Gundy. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM