Republican leaders have long warned Democrats against ending the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation in the Senate.
On Tuesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell outlined the “scorched-earth” path the GOP would take if Democrats carry out their threat to end the filibuster. It would shut down the Senate, McConnell warned.
“Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-Earth Senate would look like,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
McConnell threatened the possibility of complete gridlock on the floor, pointing out that the Senate runs by unanimous consent, which means all 100 Senators must agree to the most basic terms of operating. Every move, he said, would require a vote of the full Senate, which is currently tied 50-50.
MANCHIN OPEN TO MAKING FILIBUSTER MORE ‘PAINFUL,’ REITERATING SUPPORT FOR THE PROCESS
Vice President Kamala Harris would not be permitted to break those tied votes, McConnell added.
“I want my colleagues to imagine a world where every single task requires a physical quorum,” He said. “Even the most basic aspects of our colleagues’ agenda, the most mundane tasks of the Biden presidency, would be harder, not easier, for Democrats in a post-‘nuclear’ Senate that’s 50-50.”
The newly empowered Democratic Senate majority is mulling an end to the filibuster in order to usher through their agenda while they control both chambers of Congress and the White House. Republicans are poised to block most of their agenda.
Democrats have avoided a filibuster fight by using a budgetary tool called reconciliation, which applies to measures that affect the federal budget and allows legislation to pass with only 51 votes.
But many other major bills on the Democratic agenda, including immigration reform and a pro-labor union bill, cannot pass with a simple majority.
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The party’s liberal base is ramping up pressure on Democratic leaders to get rid of the filibuster, and top leaders, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, say it should go.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, is among a small group of moderates who either do not support getting rid of the filibuster or are undecided.
