From The Huffington Post:
WASHINGTON -- Progressive senators working to dramatically alter Senate rules were defeated on Thursday, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), set to announce a series of compromise reforms on the Senate floor that fall far short of the demands.
...
The deal would address the filibuster on the motion to proceed, which had regularly prevented the Senate from even considering legislation and was a major frustration for Reid. The new procedure will also make it easier for the majority to appoint conferees once a bill has passed, but leaves in place the minority's ability to filibuster that motion once -- meaning that even after the Senate and House have passed a bill, the minority can still mount a filibuster one more time.
Reid won concessions on judicial nominations as well. Under the old rules, after a filibuster had been beaten, 30 more hours were required to pass before a nominee could finally be confirmed. That delay threatened to tie the chamber in knots. The new rules will only allow two hours after cloture is invoked.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
UPDATE 1:
According to Joan McCarter,
(The agreement) still has to go to the respective caucuses. It's not clear yet whether that means there's the possibility for some more change or not.
And in her front page piece, she offers a small silver lining:
...McConnell was forced to the table to negotiate away at least a part of his power. That's something that doesn't happen. Ever. So in that sense, it's not a total loss. The amount of pressure from the grassroots, netroots, and the dozens of organizations in the Fix the Senate Now coalition made some degree of reform happen, and reform that's not just a gentlemen's agreement but will be adopted as the new rule by a Senate vote.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
UPDATE 2:
A tweet from David Waldman (@KagroX):
RT @AndrewKroll Real filibuster reform appears dead: bit.ly/VvhjWI || '75 reform was 22 yrs in the making. We're 2yrs into this round
http://www.twitter.com/...
Okay, and when I told him I added his tweet to this diary, he tweeted back:
@ericlewis0 Thanks! We only really got even these baby steps bc people got involved & pushed. If we don't do it again & again, this'll be it
Amen! :)