What is the ‘nuclear option’? President Trump demands GOP end filibuster, Republicans say no
President Trump is urging Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster to reopen the government, but congressional Republicans are resisting the move.
President Trump is urging Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster to reopen the government, but congressional Republicans are resisting the move.
President Trump is urging Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster to reopen the government, but congressional Republicans are resisting the move.
Congressional Republicans are rejecting President Donald Trump’s public push to use the “nuclear option” to eliminate the Senate filibuster, a move Trump says would allow Republicans to end the shutdown without Democratic votes.
“THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” President Trump said in a social media post.
The filibuster is a Senate rule requiring 60 votes, not a simple majority, to advance most legislation, incentivizing bipartisan consensus over majority rule. Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber. Democrats have voted to keep the government closed while they demand an extension of health care subsidies.
Despite Trump's call, only the Senate can change its own rules.
Republican Sen. John Curtis said on social media, “The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate. Power changes hands, but principles shouldn’t. I’m a firm no on eliminating it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune's spokesperson, Ryan Wrasse, said in a statement Friday that the leader’s “position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged.”
Thune said earlier this month that the filibuster has "been a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening to the country."
Rep. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said, "We don't have that in the House, as you know, but the filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe was on the other foot, I don't think our team would like it. The Democrats, look, they've said what they would do. They would pack. Supreme Court, they would make Puerto Rico and D.C. states, they would ban firearms, they would do all sorts of uh of things that would be very harmful for the country and the, the, the safeguard in the Senate has always been a filibuster, but again, not my issue, not something I get to even weigh in on. Uh, my opinion on this is not relevant."
Both parties have used the nuclear option for judicial nominees — Democrats in 2013 and Republicans in 2017 — but it has never been used to eliminate the filibuster for passing legislation.
Lawmakers are gone for the weekend, but neither side appears to be making concessions, indicating no end in sight to the government shutdown.
For more coverage from the Washington News Bureau:
