If he keeps talking long enough, he can upend Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s carefully laid plans for the week,
prevent amendments to the trade bill,
delay consideration of the surveillance legislation,
and otherwise prevent his Senate colleagues from enjoying their holiday weekends.
And if Paul can talk until 1 p.m. Thursday, he will have talked for 23 hours and 42 minutes — second-longest in recorded Senate history, exceeded only by Strom Thurmond’s 1957 record of 24:18.
Here is how Paul’s speech stands to affect Senate business should it continue past midnight:
Paul is already keeping the managers of the trade legislation from processing amendments to that bill,
which could affect whether the legislation gains the 60 votes tomorrow necessary to close debate and move toward final passage.
If he keeps talking past midnight,
he will delay McConnell from filing a cloture motion on legislation to address the impending Patriot Act lapse,
pushing those votes into Saturday or beyond.
And while the Senate was already on a trajectory toward some rare weekend work,
given Democrats’ pledges to draw out debate on the trade bill,
Paul’s maneuverings could guarantee it.
In the
words of my Post colleague Paul Kane, “if this isn’t a filibuster, there’s no such thing as a filibuster.”
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