Senate Republicans are increasingly chattering about changing the filibuster’s rules if Democrats do not end the shutdown, even though Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says he opposes weakening a tool safeguarding the minority’s power.
Initially, there was no discussion about filibuster reform when it came to the shutdown, but the idea is getting more attention in Republican circles as the stalemate drags on.
Even Republicans who have in the past have voiced staunch support for preserving the filibuster say that creating a carve-out to the 60-vote threshold to reopen the government is getting more talk.
“Nobody talked about filibuster two weeks ago. Now that we see that the Democrats are just not going to agree to anything, then that’s probably a viable option,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said.
“I don’t know the answer to this. I don’t think anybody does because they’re not going to give; we’re not going to give. So it’s going to be a stalemate, and the loser is going to be the American people,” he said.
Tuberville advocated for preserving the filibuster after Republicans won control of the Senate in last year’s election.
“No. No. No. We need to keep the filibuster,” Tuberville told NBC News in November.
Republican senators said changing the Senate filibuster rule didn’t come up for discussion at a White House meeting Tuesday with President Trump, but they predict Trump will start pressuring Thune to change the Senate rules if the shutdown extends to November.
“I think the pressure from the White House will become pretty enormous,” said one Republican senator, who requested anonymity, predicting Trump will demand GOP leaders find a way to end the shutdown, even if it means blowing up the filibuster.
“We’re reaching a point here where the SNAP benefits start going down, the military — pretty soon [the president] isn’t going to have enough money to pay them. We’re going to reach a point where people are literally not able to buy food,” said the senator, referencing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits winding down, as well as the military eventually going getting paid as funds are cut off.
“We’re going to reach a point where people are literally not able to buy food,” the senator said.
“There’s going to come a breaking point. Filibuster reform means all kinds of different things. It could be a talking filibuster,” the lawmaker noted. “The longer this goes on and the more intransigent the Democrats are, I think they’re inviting a conversation about, ‘Are there steps we can take here?’”
“If this goes past Nov. 1, I think the mood is really going to turn in the country in a big way,” the senator added.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Republicans want to preserve the 60-vote threshold for passing legislation but acknowledged there’s a “possibility” of exploring a carve-out to end the shutdown.
“It’s something Republicans don’t want to do,” he said.
Johnson said Democrats are breaking norms by defeating a House-passed clean continuing resolution to fund the government 11 times on the Senate floor.
“The Democrats, time and time again — on nominations — they just push the envelope. They just completely ignore norms, traditions,” he said.
He said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pushed the strategy as a former member of the Judiciary Committee of requiring that Supreme Court nominees receive at least 60 votes to be confirmed, when that wasn’t the standard practice.
“There’s a certain comity here, there’s a way of getting along. That’s just been busted by the Democrats, time and time again,” he argued, accusing Democrats of trying to sabotage Trump’s second term.
Thune so far has consistently opposed any talk of weakening or eliminating the filibuster, a Senate tradition he vowed to preserve when he ran against Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) for majority leader in November.
Thune told reporters Monday that getting rid of the filibuster to reopen government would be a “bad idea.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), when asked about changing the filibuster, said she supports preserving the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation but added she will review any plan to reopen the government, even if it includes rules reform.
Asked about using the so-called nuclear option to get rid of the filibuster and reopen the government, Collins, a prominent moderate, said: “I know that that is being discussed.”
“I am a strong supporter of the filibuster, but obviously I’ll look at any plan that anyone puts out in order to reopen government,” she told reporters Monday.
Changing a major Senate rule, such as the filibuster, with a simple majority vote would be an extremely provocative step. It’s so controversial that it’s compared to detonating a nuclear bomb, which is why the simple-majority rules change is referred to as the nuclear option.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said all “options” need to be on the table if the shutdown drags on for weeks longer.
He noted that Senate Republicans changed the Senate rules to confirm lower-level executive branch nominees en bloc after Democrats slow-walked more than 140 of Trump’s nominees, refusing to confirm a single civilian nominee by voice vote or unanimous consent to save time.
“I’d just say to the Democrats, ‘Listen, you saw what happened when we had to change the nominations rule to overcome their unprecedented obstruction,’” he said.
“At a certain point, the pain becomes so severe on working people that all options may be on the table,” he warned. “At a certain point, people have to be able to go to the VA and get health care. They have to. People have to be able to get their food stamp benefits. They won’t be able to live.”
Trump hasn’t yet focused on changing the filibuster, but it was a preoccupation during his first term when Democrats blocked his legislative agenda.
The president told a group of Senate and House appropriators in 2018 that Republicans should get rid of the filibuster, predicting Schumer would attempt to do just that if Democrats regained control of Washington.
That proved to be prescient when Schumer and Senate Democrats attempted to carve out the filibuster rule to pass voting rights legislation in January 2022. He fell short of the necessary votes after centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) — both Democrats at the time — voted with Republicans to keep the filibuster fully intact.
