Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) on Monday became the latest Republican to flirt with invoking the “nuclear option” to end the gridlock in the Senate that has catapulted the government into one of the longest shutdowns in history.
Congressional Republican leaders have thus far steadfastly opposed applying the rarely used legislative maneuver as a workaround to Democratic opposition to the GOP-backed continuing resolution seeking to open the government. But patience is growing thin among some rank-and-file Republican members as the shutdown stretches into the third week, with lawmakers such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) eyeing the tactic as a way to end the gridlock.
“We need to be taking a look at the 60-vote threshold. I mean, we really do,” Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters this week as he became the latest major GOP lawmaker to buck leadership on using the nuclear option. “At a minimum, why don’t we take a look at it for CRs? … Look, I mean, we have a 50-vote threshold for the budget. We have a 50-vote threshold for reconciliation. Why shouldn’t we have a 50-vote threshold to be able to fund the government if the majority of people want to do that?”
The nuclear option would do away with the Senate’s filibuster rule, which promotes a bipartisan approach that checks majority power and undergirds the process by which most legislation is passed. Under the rule, legislation, including the continuing resolution Republicans want to pass to open the government, requires the support of 60 senators to advance. Otherwise, opposition members or lawmakers in the minority can continue to place a filibuster hold on bills, as has been the case for the CR.
Senate Democrats are poised to block the measure for the 11th time in a vote Monday evening, due to arguments that Republicans must first attach extensions to Obamacare to the “clean” CR, which would keep the government funded at current levels.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has criticized motions to invoke the nuclear option, framing it as a shortsighted approach that is not “wise” because Democrats could just as easily use the tactic to thwart Republicans the next time they gain the majority.
”I would be deeply concerned if the Democrats had a bare majority in the Senate right now, Marxist ideology taking over the Democrat Party,” Johnson said during a press conference earlier this month in comments defending the filibuster rule. “Do I want them to have no safeguards and no stumbling blocks or hurdles at all in the way of turning us into a communist country? I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has argued the same, saying the 60-vote supermajority rule “has protected this country” and that Democrats could have enacted “a whole lot of bad things” if the legislative filibuster had not been in place when they controlled the Senate.
“The filibuster protects, it’s been a voice for the minority, it gives the minority a say in what happens in this country,” he told reporters during an Oct. 10 briefing. “The founders created the Senate uniquely that way, for that specific reason.”
But while leadership’s opposition makes it unlikely that the nuclear option to revoke the legislative filibuster will soon be triggered, Roy’s frustration signals broader discontent with Republicans’ shutdown strategy and anger within certain factions over how senior figures are handling the gridlock.
“I think Republicans ought to take a long, hard look at the 60-vote threshold, which I think we’re just being beholden to a broken system right now,” Roy said this week. “Look, I like being able to block bad things with 60 votes, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it’s a one-way ratchet.”
Still, Republican leaders appear largely confident that they hold the advantage in the shutdown battle and that they will soon garner five more Senate Democrats willing to back the CR and open the government. Democrats have backed similar “clean” CRs over a dozen times in recent years, they argue, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) opposition this month marking “the first time in history that a clean CR has ever been the subject of a government shutdown,” Johnson has said.
Johnson suggested Monday that Schumer might be more willing to negotiate with Republicans now that the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests passed over the weekend.
“The shutdown is about one thing and one thing alone: Chuck Schumer’s political survival,” the House speaker said during a press conference, referencing his belief that Schumer has been pressured by progressive Democrats to block the CR or face a primary challenge. After Schumer backed a similar CR keeping the government funded at current levels in March, the move triggered intense backlash from left-wing factions in his party, which raised Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as a possible challenger to him.
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“Now that Democrats have had their protests and publicity stunts, I just pray that they come to their senses and end this shutdown and reopen the government this week,” Johnson said.
As shutdown talks continue, Johnson spoke with Trump on Monday morning and plans to meet with the president again later in the afternoon. Senate Republicans have been invited to a lunch with Trump on Tuesday at the White House, according to CBS News.
