The Hill News

Dan Coats (R), Indiana’s senator-elect, has called on his fellow Republicans to consider filibuster reform next year.

Senate Democrats held several hearings on changing the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires unanimous consent or 60 votes to conduct even routine business.

Senate Republicans have resisted such proposals.

But Republicans are confident they will capture control of the upper chamber in the 2012 election, when 23 Senate Democrats â€" including two independents allied with their caucus â€" face re-election.

Some Republicans think they also have a good chance of defeating President Obama in two years because of the sluggish economy and his low approval rating.

Coats, who served in the Senate from 1989 to 1999 endorsed, said his Republican and Democratic colleagues should consider changing rules to lower the barriers to passing bold legislation.

“It is a barrier,” he said of the need for 60 votes to cut off dilatory floor debate. “At the very least we need to remove the 60-vote rule for bringing a bill to the floor and actually debating it and voting on it.”

Coats made his comments during a weekend interview on Fox News.

Coats said Congress needs to act immediately to reduce spending and bolster the economy.

Coats also criticized the practice of combining multiple spending bills into sprawling omnibus packages that Congress often votes on before adjourning for the year. These jumbo spending packages often include last-minute additions that lawmakers are not aware of when they vote.

“The American people deserve that we are transparent with them, that we take one item at a time, that we register our yeas and nays and be accountable to the American people for what we’ve done,” he said.

Coats called for a compromise between GOP senators who are battling over earmark reform.

He said there should be an orderly process for requesting and vetting earmarks.

“I want a procedure, a process where something is vetted,” he said. “What I don’t want are earmarks that are simply attached at the end or into a bill and we only find out about it later.”