If you follow politics at all, you would know that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) completed a twelve hour filibuster last night in protest of John Brennan’s confirmation as director of the CIA. In this light, here are some fun facts about the use of filibustering in American senatorial history brought to you by the Constitution Center:

•  The House of Representatives doesn’t use filibusters anymore. When the House got bigger, it moved away from filibusters in 1842.
• In the current Senate, a member doesn’t need to speak on the floor, in a filibuster, to block a vote from happening. The filibuster can even be done by email.
• The use of “silent” filibusters is one of the issues that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterparts are debating.
• According to the current Senate rules, the opposing party can indicate that is has 41 out of 100 voters that will support a filibuster by defeating a vote to block it. The majority party then needs to get 60 votes together to approve a time limit for a debate about the bill.
• So a senator doesn’t need to jump up and rant in public for hours to prevent a bill from passing. That senator just needs to issue a warning that there are enough votes to support a filibuster.
• Senator Reid says a streamlined filibuster process will make the Senate run smoother. Reid’s opponents want a simpler process, too, but they don’t agree with Reid on the details.
• One reason both sides want filibuster reform is that the prior 112th Congress passed the fewest number of bills, about 220, on record since 1947. In comparison, 115 cloture motions were filed to contest a silent filibuster.
• The cloture motion dates back to President Woodrow Wilson, and it basically calls the minority party’s bluff by forcing a vote to see if 60 senators will approve a time limit on a debate about passing a bill.
• One big issue Senator Reid and Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are discussing is the return of the “talking filibuster” to replace the silent filibuster.
• In its original form, a senator could “grab” the Senate floor and stall a bill by speaking for as long as he or she could stay awake.
• The scene with Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a famous example of a talking filibuster, where Smith’s character collapses after a 24-hour filibuster in the 1939 film.
• A famous real-life filibuster involved Senator Strom Thurmond, who held the Senate floor for 24 hours in an attempt to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
• According to the Senate website, a group of senators also staged at 57-day filibuster to protest the Civil Rights Act of 1964, until a successful cloture vote shut down the filibuster.
• The filibuster also has a cousin called the “hold.”
• A hold is a private communication to Senate leadership from a member who objects to, or wants more time to consider, a bill.
• A hold can block legislative action for several days because the Senate will ask for the unanimous consent of its members to move some measures along, and the member asking for the hold won’t agree.
• One type of hold is called the Mae West hold, because of her famous movie line, “Come up and see me sometime.” A senator using a Mae West hold is indicating a desire for a closed-door meeting that could lead to a compromise.
• Another is called the Tag Team hold, where multiple senators will take turns making hold requests. This will stall legislation or the approval of presidential appointments when a different senator files a hold request within 48 hours of a previous request.