Merkley yields floor after third-longest speech in Senate history

Aris Folley, CQ-Roll Call on Oct 22, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Merkley’s overnight remarks ending early Wednesday evening put him in the top tier of lengthy floor speeches in the chamber’s history, a marathon floor protest emblematic of the paralysis gripping Washington as a partial government shutdown entered its fourth week.

Merkley’s all-nighter on the Senate floor began early Tuesday evening, putting floor business on hold while railing against President Donald Trump and his agenda. His speech began not long after 6 p.m. and concluded at around 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Merkley’s remarks, interrupted only to yield for questions from Democratic colleagues who came to the floor to give him breaks, clocked in at 22 hours and 37 minutes. That’s good for third-longest all time among senators continuously holding the floor.

The Oregon Democrat mostly waged a lonely overnight crusade against the Trump administration. Among his targets were the president’s “big, beautiful bill” featuring major tax and spending cuts, the immigration enforcement crackdown, and the deployment of the National Guard in American cities.

“I came to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells,” Merkley said as he began the speech. “We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution.”

Merkley’s speech is not technically considered a filibuster because he was not trying to block any specific nominee or piece of legislation.

But the talkathon forced Senate leaders to delay a scheduled 1 p.m. vote on the House-passed continuing resolution that would end the partial shutdown. Under Senate rules, a senator who is recognized by the presiding officer can, except for certain situations, hold the floor for as long as he or she can remain standing and speaking in the chamber.

The Senate was finally able to take a procedural vote on the CR at around 5:30 p.m.. Democrats blocked the measure for the 12th time, as they insist on securing a bipartisan deal to extend expiring health insurance subsidies as a condition for ending the shutdown. The vote was 54-46, falling six votes short of the 60 required to advance the bill.

To break the impasse, the GOP majority would need at least eight Democrats to join them to muster the 60 votes required because there are 53 Republicans and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., opposes the measure. Only three members of the Democratic caucus voted for the measure Wednesday, as they have done fairly consistently.

Approaching the record

Merkley’s speech marked the latest floor protest waged by Democrats to oppose Trump’s policies this year.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., broke the record last spring for delivering the longest floor speech in Senate history, which clocked in at 25 hours and 4 minutes. The previous record was held by the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrat-turned-Republican and foe of the Civil Rights Act who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957.

Booker provided an assist to Merkley on Wednesday by joining him on the floor to continue the dialogue, as did other Democrats such as Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Asked about Merkley’s speech on Wednesday, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said she thinks her party has been “galvanized by the concerns that Americans have about what Trump is doing to the fundamental institutions of our democracy” following the recent “No Kings” rallies held in cities across the country this past weekend.

Republicans, meanwhile, were looking to dial up the pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown. GOP leaders plan to hold a vote on legislation offered by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that aims to pay troops and certain civilian federal employees who are required to work during the shutdown.

Those workers would typically be denied pay until after the shutdown is over, although the Trump administration has already diverted Pentagon research and development funds to pay the troops this month without congressional approval in a legally untested budget maneuver.

Democrats have criticized the bill and plan to offer an alternative measure they say would also extend pay to federal employees who have been furloughed as a result of the funding lapse. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said Wednesday that the Democratic-backed plan should be released later in the day.

With a procedural vote on Johnson’s bill currently slated for Thursday, it’s not yet clear what plan Democrats have to attempt to secure consideration of their emerging counterproposal. It could be offered as an amendment to Johnson’s bill or as stand-alone legislation.

“I will answer that question when I know it,” Senate Appropriations ranking Democrat Patty Murray of Washington said.