This week, New Jersey’s Democratic Senator Cory BOOKER entered the US Senate History by uttering the longest speech of the House’s history, with uninterrupted 25 hours and 5 minutes of speech. He supplanted the record that remained since 1957, when the conservative Republican Strom Thurmond spoke to his peers for 24 hours and 18 minutes, in a practice of obstruction known as “Philibule”.
Brooker’s long speech was not configured as a “Philibument” because he did not intend to obstruct any important vote, just mark his position against Donald Trump’s government agenda, such as fare policy, the effort led by billionaire Elon Musk to reduce federal bureaucracy and possible cuts in Medicaid.
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Strom Thurmond tried decades earlier to prevent the vote of one of the first read by civil rights.
But how is this “Philibument” practice and in what other situations did this occur? THE Infomoney made a list of previous records and curiosities.
1908 – La Follette was “salmal geama”
Robert M. La Follette was almost half a century the holder of the single speech record, totaling 18 hours and 23 minutes, with pauses for Apartes. The newbie Senator by Winsconsin was fighting a measure designed to protect the coin and annoyed many colleagues throughout the night by the insistent quorum checks. Its popularity was not on the rise either with the kitchen staff when, early in the morning, it ordered a turkey sandwich and a yolk. As he took a long sip during the snack, he pushed the glass away and said he had been drugged. In the following hours, he helped himself with allied aspasses to be able to run to the bathroom during an intestinal crisis. Years later, he said the ice cream had been analyzed and that the mixture of milk and eggs contained enough toxic bacteria to kill anyone who consumed the entire glass.
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Group obstruction
In 1915, a contentious obstruction of a bill to buy merchant ships ended after 33 days, with a coalition of conservative republicans and democrats blocking the legislation. Already in March 1917, when the United States were preparing to enter World War I, a group of 11 senators successfully obstructed a bill that allowed President Woodrow Wilson Arming Ships in the United States. La Follette was in the group he spoke for 24 hours, but the legislation was approved weeks later, by a large majority.
Against “New Deal”
President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “New Deal” plan was also the target of obstruction. Louisiana Huey Pierce Long spoke in 1935 against economic and social measures legislation for 15 hours and 30 minutes, the second longest obstruction of the Senate so far. Famous for distributing Bibles to reporters who covered Congress, his reason was to prevent his political enemies from Louisiana from obtaining profitable jobs at NRA state agency.
Hollywood
The obstruction of a man only became a hit script and movie in Hollywood in 1930. In the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” [“A Mulher faz o Homem” no título em português]the naive chief of scout Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) becomes a senator encouraged by a group of politicians who want to turn him into a puppet to the service of his interests. The corrupt environment is clear when a Smith project to create a youth camp hit another for the construction of one dam in a river in the same region. He is defamed and accused of trying to benefit financially and comes close to exhaustion by defending his point of view. Director Frank Capra’s classic film was even accused of antipatriota for the form that showed the senators. Won an Oscar by adapted script.
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Submerged land
The longest obstruction record was broken in 1953, when Wayne Morse spoke for 22 hours and 26 minutes against the law discussing state versus federal property on submerged offshore oil land. The so -called “The Senate Tiger” began as a republican politician, but became independent a headache for five presidents. In January 1953, Morse arrived at the opening session of the 83rd Congress with a folding chair. “Since I didn’t receive any seats in the new Senate, I decided to bring mine.”
Against civil rights
James Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a fervent opponent of civil rights legislation, was responsible for the longest speech record until she was beaten in 2025. He had already acquired fame to obstruct all bills in this sense that arrived in the Senate. This obstruction lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes in August 1957, but this said little because the proposal was approved the next day. At the time, he joined 18 other Southern Senators to sign South Manifesto, a statement that resistance to such agreening in public education after historical decisions of the US Supreme Court.
Debt ceiling
How about staying for 16 hours and 12 minutes listening to someone talking about increasing the ceiling of public debt. Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin was the author of the feat in September 1981. Proxmire warned that about the increase in the country’s level of indebtedness during the vote of a project to authorize a total debt of $ 1 trillion. His Senate detractors pointed out that taxpayers were paying tens of thousands of dollars to keep the plenary open all night during their speech. This debt has increased several times since then.
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Military spending
New York Alfonse D’Amato spoke for 23 hours and 30 minutes to paralyze the debate on an important military law project in 1986. D’Amato attacked an amendment to the bill that would have cut the financing of a training jet built by a company based in his state, according to published reports. This was just one of D’Amato’s most famous and longest obstructions. In 1992, he made “gentlemen obstruction” for 15 hours and 14 minutes, holding a $ 27 billion fiscal bill.
