Top Republican rebuffs Trump calls to scrap filibuster rule in shutdown standoff
The top Republican in the US Senate has rebuffed Donald Trump’s call to abandon the House filibuster rule in a bid to end the ongoing government shutdown, now entering its 30th day.
The filibuster is a long-standing rule requiring 60 of 100 members to approve most legislation. With a 53-47 majority, removing the rule would allow Republicans to pass a funding bill without Democratic support.
“Now is the time for Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP’ and take the so-called nuclear option: get rid of the filibuster and get rid of it NOW,” Trump wrote on social media.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his opposition to the proposal remains “unchanged.”
The lockdown, which began on October 1, has left millions of Americans facing the loss of essential services.
If this continues through the weekend, more than 40 million people could have lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which provides food assistance to low-income households.
However, on Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from suspending the food aid, arguing that doing so would likely be illegal.
Thousands of federal workers have already missed their paychecks, and there are growing fears of increased flight delays as air traffic controllers and airport staff work without pay.
Thune has previously rejected calls to change the filibuster rule to end the shutdown.
“Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative obstruction remains unchanged,” Ryan Wrasse, Thune’s communications director, said in a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner.
Lawmakers from both political parties have long expressed concerns that its removal would erode a key guarantee for the minority party.
“Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should do, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous ‘SHUT DOWN’ of destroying the country,” Trump wrote in a social media post Thursday evening.
By Friday, most senators had left Washington for the weekend, with little sign of progress toward reopening the government.
It remains unclear whether there is enough support in the Senate to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster.
In recent years, both parties have reduced the scope of the filibuster.
During former President Joe Biden’s administration, some Democrats suggested ending the filibuster to ensure access to abortion and protect voting rights, but the proposal did not gain sufficient support within the party.
The Senate has already carved out exceptions so that some nominees, including judicial nominees, need only a simple majority vote to be confirmed. But most laws remain subject to the 60-vote threshold.
Many Republicans fear that ending the filibuster could backfire if Democrats regain control of Congress.
The shutdown took effect Oct. 1 after Democrats refused to support a stopgap measure to keep the government open until mid-November unless Republicans agreed to expand health care subsidies for low-income Americans.
Republicans resisted, accusing Democrats of holding the government hostage over unrelated policy priorities.
