Senate Republicans say if Democrats vote to end the filibuster, the GOP will use the new rule to force votes on a string of Republican bills that would stand a good chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate.
In a move that would turn the Democratic plan to end the filibuster on its head, Republicans say they’ll bring up legislation that can easily garner 50 GOP votes and a few Democratic ones. This could advance Republican measures under the rule change Democrats are considering that would lower the 60-vote threshold to 51 votes.
The GOP’s list of legislation is not what Democratic leaders have in mind as they plot an end to the filibuster, including legislation to restart the Keystone XL pipeline, bolster security at the beleaguered southern border, and block taxpayer funding for abortions.
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“There could be some really hard votes for Democrats,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters in the Capitol on Monday.
Republicans first disclosed their plan to the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Democrats plan to vote on the major change to Senate rules as early as this week to eliminate the decades-old 60-vote threshold to advance legislation and replace it with a simple majority. The move would clear the way for the party to bring bills to the floor that would otherwise be blocked by Republicans who refuse to provide the 10 votes needed to proceed.
If Democrats change the rules, Republicans warned they would use it to their advantage by bringing up wish list legislation that stands a chance of either attracting Democratic support or forcing lawmakers to make the difficult choice of siding with their own party leadership or their constituents.
“I think they need to think long and hard about whether or not they want to go down a path that allows Republicans to move items on our agenda at 51 (votes) on things that they’re going to be, many of them, adamantly opposed to,” Thune added.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana both voted to back the Keystone pipeline last year, putting them under intense pressure to support a Keystone bill if the GOP brought it up under the new rules.
Democrats hope to alter the filibuster to advance partisan voting and election overhaul measures they say are critically needed to ensure and improve voter access to the polls. The measures would block red-state voter integrity laws and reinstate federal oversight of election and voting changes in certain districts to prevent discrimination.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, called Democratic complaints about voting rights “fake hysteria” and said ending the filibuster would destroy a key feature of Congress that protects democracy by giving the minority a voice in Congress.
Democrats haven’t scheduled a vote on changing the Senate rules, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, pledged to take it up before Jan. 17.
Democrats must first convince all 50 party lawmakers to back the rules change to pass it with a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
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But there are at least two holdouts: Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
“They’re coming down to crunch time, and I understand,” Manchin said Monday. “I understand the position they’re in and what they’re doing, but I think I’ve been very clear where I am. So I hope they respect that, too.”
