Republicans on Capitol Hill came off this weekend’s shutdown showdown emboldened after Democrats relented less than three days after the lights went out at federal agencies.
But the next conflict over immigration and government spending is just around the corner, and to avoid another skirmish President Donald Trump has proposed ending the Senate filibuster, the tool that allows the minority party to block legislation from coming to the floor with only 40 votes. He and others have singled out the practice as a key reason for Washington’s gridlock.
“Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.’s!,” Trump tweeted Jan. 21, using the acronym for continuing resolutions, or short-term funding patches.
Several Georgia Republicans in the House have also vocalized their support for invoking the so-called nuclear option, or changing the Senate rules to end the filibuster, including Doug Collins of Gainesville, Jody Hice of Monroe and Tom Graves of Ranger.
“If Democrats decide to use shutdown tactics again, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to modernize the Chamber’s operating procedures so government funding bills can pass with a simple majority,” Graves said in a statement Monday. “Democrat abuse of the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold is failing the American people.”
Debate about the usefulness of the Senate tool in today’s hyper-partisan political environment has intensified in recent years, especially after then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., changed Senate rules in 2013 to end the filibuster on executive branch and judicial nominees.
Democrats at the time left the filibuster in place for legislation, as well as for Supreme Court nominees. Republicans moved to reverse the latter last year in order to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the high court, a move supported by both of Georgia's GOP senators, Johnny Isakson and David Perdue.
Now a growing group of Republicans is looking to eliminate the filibuster on must-pass government spending bills or even on all legislation. That would allow the majority party in the Senate to pass legislation with 51 votes, which would enable the chamber function like the House.
Senators are defensive about outsiders telling them how to run their chamber, and many senior lawmakers oppose ending the filibuster, remembering all too well how useful it was to them when they were in the minority. That includes Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Isakson, his political ally.
“I’m an institutional guy, and as much as I don’t like the filibuster I understand the reason for” it, Isakson said in an interview Monday. It’s “been good for us when we were in the minority. It’s been painful for us when we’ve been in the majority, but it works both ways.”
Perdue, a former businessman who frequently bristles at the Senate's arcane rules and traditions, indicated earlier this week that he could be open to changing the rules, especially on spending bills.
“That’s a reasonable point to debate at this point, in my view,” he said. “There’s some question about whether this body right now given the gridlock here can actually govern with a 60-vote rule.”
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