By ,
Published January 14, 2015
In the House of Representatives (search), a cohesive majority party can steamroll the minority at will. But in a closely divided Senate, the rules are much more favorable to the minority.
That's the frustration for Senate Republicans these days, who say Democrats have thrown up procedural roadblocks to legislation, including an energy bill and a medical liability (search) measure.
"The agenda we have set out, really at the first of the session, really for this whole Congress, has been to move America forward, and to do it in a way that is to the benefit of the American people. And with that, it means you can't stay on a bill for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and have it continually obstructed," said Majority Leader Bill Frist (search), R-Tenn.
But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (search), D-S.D., looks at it quite differently.
"We have not obstructed, in many cases, bills because they've been pulled before we've even had a chance to begin the debate on them," Daschle said.
Senate Democrats, however, have started a new method of stopping legislation from moving through the legislative process once a bill passes the Senate. They have refused to appoint members to conferences that House and Senate lawmakers must hold to iron out differences in similar, but not identical, bills passed in both chambers.
Click here to watch a report by Fox News' Brian Wilson.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/senate-stuck-in-procedural-limbo