Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Monday floated the use of the “nuclear option” to end the shutdown and get around Senate filibuster rules that require a 60-vote majority to reopen the government.
“We need to be taking a look at the 60 vote threshold. We really do,” Roy told reporters Monday.
Senate rules require support from 60 senators to end debate to overcome a filibuster proceed to an underlying vote on most legislation — and it is the reason why dissent from Democrats have prevented the Republican majority from re-opening the government.
Republican leaders in the Senate triggered that “nuclear option” to bypass the need to get Democratic support to confirm a slate of President Trump’s nominees last month, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said that he won’t do so on the continuing resolution (CR) to re-open the government.
Roy, though, said it should be under consideration.
“At a minimum, why don’t we take a look at it for CRs?” Roy said. “Why don’t we just say, 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?” Roy said.
The 60-vote threshold has long been hailed by Republicans as a way to be a check on Democrats when they have the majority, and Thune said at the start of this year that preserving the filibuster would be one of his top priorities.
“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, but for basically, [former Sen. Kyrsten] Sinema [I-Ariz.] and [former Sen. Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.], they would have blown up the 60-vote threshold to advance their agenda,” Roy said.
“I think Republicans ought to take a long, hard look at the 60-vote threshold, because I think we’re just being beholden to a broken system right now,” Roy said.
Roy is not the only Republican calling for a reconsideration of the filibuster. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has also suggested that Republicans to use the “nuclear option” to end the government shutdown.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), on the other hand, has cautioned against that approach.
“Is it wise? You can have a lot of people who would tell you it’s not,” Johnson said in a press conference earlier this month.
”I would be deeply concerned if the Democrats had a bare majority in the Senate right now, Marxist ideology taking over the Democrat Party. Do I want them to have no safegaurds 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.”
