Will Republicans Nuke the Filibuster to End the Shutdown?

Will Senate Republicans go nuclear to end the shutdown?

It’s a fair question, considering how dug in the Democrats appear to be, having voted down a continuing resolution to fund the government over a half dozen times. “The nuclear option,” in Senate parlance, is a process through which the Senate can establish new precedent with a simple majority.

Almost two weeks into a shutdown with no end in sight, some are asking if President Donald Trump, who has previously criticized the 60-vote threshold required to end debate on most bills, could call for the nuclear option to remove the requirement. 

So far, there’s one Republican senator, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who has entertained the idea.

“Maybe it’s time to think about the filibuster,” the freshman senator said in a recent interview on Fox News. “We say, ‘Look, the Democrats would have done it. Let’s just vote with Republicans, we’ve got 52 Republicans, let’s go, and let’s open the government.’ It may get to that.”

He added, “If they let this keep going on, I would advocate to my colleagues, let’s make this a Republican-only vote, let’s reopen the government, let’s reform health care. Because, look, the filibuster is something that’s important, it’s institutional, but look at the damages, the real damage where they can hold us hostage for $1.5 trillion in new spending … the American people don’t support it. They want us to do our job, and maybe we do it only with Republicans.”

Since Trump said in 2017 that “the very outdated filibuster rule must go,” some have asked Republican leadership whether or not this is on the table.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., a defender of Senate tradition, says this isn’t a good approach, and that the president hasn’t asked for it yet.

“There’s always a lot of swirl out there, as you know, from social media, etc., but no, I have not had that conversation,” Thune said Thursday when asked if Trump had pushed him on the matter.

Thune, who in his first speech as leader in January promised to defend the filibuster, also recently said that he “could see at some point that being a potential conversation. But that’s not good for anybody. We should avoid that at all costs.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

In the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has said that the Senate is “designed to obstruct the will of the people and protect the Uniparty’s grip on power,” has advocated nuking the filibuster more aggressively than anybody.

“The filibuster, 60 vote rule, is a Senate self imposed rule to maintain bipartisanship,” Greene said in a recent post on X. “Bipartisanship is dead and everyone knows it. Republicans should use the nuclear option and pass our agenda. Democrats most definitely will if they regain power!”

Democrats have attempted to nuke the filibuster in recent history, with a 2022 attempt to waive the 60-vote requirement to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act failing due to the opposition of Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Oddly enough, one of the only senators who has publicly entertained the nuclear option is a Democrat. Sen John Fetterman, D-Pa., told reporters in the first week of the shutdown, “How much longer before the Republicans can even carve this out of the filibuster, too?” 

Recently Senate Republicans employed the nuclear option of a rule change to allow nominees to be confirmed in groups as opposed to one-by-one.

When a reporter asked Fetterman whether getting rid of the filibuster is something Democrats might even want Republicans to do, his response was surprising.

“I’m saying I think they [Republicans] probably should,” he replied. ”If you’re able to get out of the filibuster to prevent either party, make it a lot harder to shut the government down—I absolutely support that.”

But there is, in fact, little support for the nuclear option among Republican senators.

“If there is [a discussion about it], I haven’t heard it,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told The Daily Signal on Friday. “I haven’t heard any conversation of that effect, you know, among any Republicans.

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., similarly rejected the idea on Friday.

“There’s no reason we have to do that,” he said. “These Democrats need to come on board … and the right thing to do is to reopen the government and pay our troops.”

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