As the partial government shutdown rolls into its third week, some Republicans are floating the idea of getting rid of the Senate filibuster to overcome Democratic recalcitrance. GOP leaders have been wise to rule it out.
The 100-seat body requires 60 votes to pass a government funding bill because of the filibuster tradition, which means that Republicans need to win over a handful of Senate Democrats to end the shutdown.
The idea of ending the practice, which was popular among Democrats until they lost control of the chamber this year, is now gaining some interest on the right. “Maybe it’s time to think about the filibuster,” suggested Sen. Bernie Moreno (R) in a recent Fox News interview.
The Ohio freshman has never served in the minority, so he can be forgiven for failing to appreciate how such a move would come back to haunt his party and the country.
The filibuster has a long history of frustrating presidents but also moderating legislation coming from the more unruly House.
The top two Senate GOP leaders, who have been around for a while, know better. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (South Dakota) and John Barrasso (Wyoming) both reiterated their opposition. Thune said the White House hasn’t pushed them to change course, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) also called it a bad idea.
The irony is that Democrats who tried so hard to get rid of the filibuster under President Joe Biden are now taking advantage of it. Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) stopped Democrats from “going nuclear” in 2022 — and were effectively forced into retirement.
Perhaps Democrats will have the votes to nuke the filibuster the next time they control the Senate, but they’d prefer if Republicans did it for them.
Democrats complain that Republicans have weakened the filibuster since retaking the majority in January. The GOP rolled back California’s electric vehicle standards in May on a party-line vote by overruling the Senate parliamentarian’s opinion that doing so required 60 votes. Then, last month, Republicans changed Senate rules so that they could confirm 48 of President Donald Trump’s sub-Cabinet nominees as a bloc, rather than individually.
Those procedural escalations will beget further escalations.
After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) changed the rules in 2013 so that judges could be confirmed to district and circuit courts with a simple majority, it was only a matter of time before Republicans applied that principle to Supreme Court nominations in 2017.
The base of both parties these days demands total resistance to the agenda of the president of an opposite party, but party leaders generally understand the risk of changing the rules every time there is a deadlock like this partial shutdown. If neither side makes any effort to find common ground when in the minority, the world’s greatest deliberative body will break forever.
