Rep. Vern Buchanan on Monday became the latest House Republican to ask Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to change Senate rules so Republicans can end the Democratic filibuster on a resolution disapproving of the Iran nuclear agreement.
Democrats last week mustered 42 senators to prevent that resolution from being debated. The Senate needed 60 votes to end debate and officially launch a debate and vote on the resolution, but only 58 votes could be found.
That has Republicans saying the GOP should unilaterally change the rules to let the resolution advance with just 51 votes. If that could happen, Republicans on their own could finish work on the resolution and pass it, and Buchanan said that move needs to be made.
“I urge you to use your constitutional authority to require debate and a vote on the Iran nuclear arms deal,” Buchanan wrote to McConnell in a letter Monday.
“It is appalling that obstructionists led by Sen. Harry Reid have prevented the Senate from debating, let alone voting, on one of the most important national security treaties in decades.”
Buchanan said Reid used his power as Senate majority leader in the last Congress to allow judicial nominations to advance in the Senate with a simple majority vote, instead of a super-majority. Buchanan said McConnell needs to do the same thing.
“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do, except this would be in the interest of national security, not about a judgeship or a position on the NLRB,” he wrote, referring to the National Labor Relations Board.
Buchanan also said the Supreme Court has decided the Senate can make its own rules.
“I urge you to use your constitutional authority to break the filibuster and move forward with debate and a vote on the Iran nuclear deal,” he wrote. “Too much is at stake.”
Just last week, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, criticized McConnell for keeping the rules in place that allow Democrats to prevent consideration of the resolution on Iran.
“If the Senate majority leader cannot stand up for the vast majority of the American people, then we do need new leadership,” Labrador said.
So far, however, McConnell has not indicated he’s open to that move, and instead has said the Senate would try again this week to break the filibuster.
Republicans seem to be reluctant to change the rules the way Reid did, and at the time, the GOP argued that Reid’s changes were slowly turning the Senate into another House of Representatives, where the majority rules.
Read Buchanan’s letter here:
