Senate Majority Leader John Thune is refusing to use the so-called nuclear option to get rid of the legislative filibuster so Republicans can end the government shutdown without needing Democratic votes.
“The 60-vote threshold has protected this country,” the South Dakota Republican said, noting that Democrats could have enacted “a whole lot of bad things” if the legislative filibuster were not in place.
Having a supermajority requirement to pass legislation is what “makes the Senate the Senate,” Mr. Thune said.
“The filibuster protects; it’s been a voice for the minority; it gives the minority a say in what happens in this country,” he said. “The founders created the Senate uniquely that way, for that specific reason.”
Senate Democrats have been filibustering a House-passed stopgap bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21. The Democrats are demanding a bipartisan negotiation over health care and extending a COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies set to expire this year.
Mr. Thune said the easier solution to ending the shutdown is five more Senate Democrats voting to end their party’s filibuster of the stopgap bill and reopen the government.
“We need five bold, courageous Democrats with a backbone who are willing to take on their far-left, activist base, join us in passing this,” he said.
Several Senate Democrats in recent years have called for ending the legislative filibuster. They’ve argued it impedes passing voting rights legislation and codifying federal protections for abortion that were eroded by the Supreme Court.
Republicans, after taking back the Senate majority in the 2024 election, have resisted engaging in similar calls because they know the shoe could again be on the other foot.
“Frankly, that’s what I think this last election was largely about,” Mr. Thune said. “If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would have tried to nuke the filibuster, and then you’d have four new United States senators from Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, you’d have a packed Supreme Court, you’d have abortion on demand, a whole bunch of things that were on that laundry list.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.