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 that 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 reopening 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 he won’t use the same tactic on the continuing resolution (CR) to reopen 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 [I-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.”
