In the US
Congress the filibuster tactic is only feasible in the
Senate. In the
House of Representatives the speakers in a
debate are under a time limit, and it takes a
vote to suspend the rules to extend the limit. In the Senate there is no time limit, so a speaker could theoretically kill a measure by refusing to yield the floor until the proponents of the measure give up. In practice, a motion of
cloture is not that hard to pass, meaning the filibuster tactic works only if there are enough supporters to pass the bill (otherwise why bother?), but not enough to break the filibuster with a cloture motion.
True, the filibuster means that a determined minority faction in the Senate can hold up a bill indefinitely, but that's not a bug; it's a feature. The people who wrote the rules of procedure for the Senate felt that if opinion was so closely split on a bill, then maybe it deserved more careful consideration.