President Trump late Thursday renewed his call to eliminate the filibuster to force through legislation ending the government shutdown, but his plea is unlikely to get much traction among the Republicans who control the Senate.
Many Republicans, particularly more senior members, fear that any weakening of the signature Senate rule that requires most legislation to win 60 votes would backfire spectacularly if Democrats regained control. They worry it could lead to a deluge of progressive legislation they would be unable to block, including statehood for the District of Columbia and with it two new Democratic senators.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, has made preserving the legislative filibuster a central tenet of his tenure, though he has already weakened it with a rules change to speed confirmations and by stretching the reach of special filibuster-proof tax and spending bills, among other steps.
Earlier this month, Mr. Thune reiterated that he would oppose a change that would enable Republicans to bulldoze past Democratic opposition and pass a stopgap spending bill on a simple majority vote. But he has come under mounting pressure from some on the right, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia.
A Thune spokesman said on Friday that, “Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged.”
Even if he tried to get rid of the filibuster to appease Mr. Trump, Mr. Thune might lack the votes to do so. Multiple Senate Republicans have indicated an unwillingness to overturn the 60-vote legislative threshold using what is known as the “nuclear option,” in which the majority party changes the chamber’s rules with a simple majority, party-line vote.
Mr. Trump was adamant as he returned from his trip to Asia, urging Mr. Thune and his colleagues to act.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their “TRUMP CARD,” and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Under the current rules, at least 60 senators must agree to a final vote on any major legislation, including a spending bill that would reopen the government. Republicans hold 53 seats, and three Democratic-aligned senators have consistently joined them in voting the advance a stopgap spending bill, while one of their own, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, has repeated voted no. Without more defections, Republicans remain short of the 60-vote margin, prompting Mr. Trump’s push to rewrite the rules.
Advocates of doing so have argued that the change could be written narrowly to cover specific bills. But in reality, any change in the filibuster rules in the Senate, which operates according to precedent, would effectively end it for all bills. Opponents have suggested it would be a drastic move for such a limited win as a stopgap spending bill.
The president pushed multiple times during his first term to neuter the filibuster when Republicans controlled Congress. But Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who was the majority leader at the time, refused. Mr. McConnell had made deploying the filibuster against Democrats a hallmark of his career.
Senate Democrats in 2022 sought to end the 60-vote threshold on election-related measures but came up short when two of their members, Senators Joe Manchin III of West of Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, sided with Republicans against changing the rules.
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent for The Times, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
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