Many Republicans do not want to see the filibuster changed, something that Democrats pursued when President Joe Biden was in the White House.
WASHINGTON—Amid a long-running shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has consistently defended the filibuster.
That center has so far held.
A Republican-backed continuing resolution has failed to net the 60 votes needed to avert a filibuster, prompting some Republicans to flirt with the idea of altering it—a move last pursued by Democrats during the Biden administration.
Yet despite some chatter a few days ago, lawmakers who spoke with The Epoch Times have mostly remained skeptical of such a maneuver.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters on Oct. 23 that the nuclear option—another term for a Senate rules change to sidestep the filibuster—would be “a mistake.”
Also on Oct 23, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters, “There’s no support on my side of the aisle to end the filibuster.”
“I’m not changing the filibuster,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters on Oct. 23.
Yet Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), another GOP moderate, sounded more equivocal about the issue.
“I am a strong supporter of the filibuster, but obviously I’ll look at any plan that anyone puts out … to reopen government,” she told reporters that same day.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told The Hill that ending the filibuster was “a viable option” as Republicans and Democrats remain at a stand-off over government funding.
He told The Epoch Times on Oct. 28 that “there’s not much talk” about a change to that rule.
“We’ve got to do something, because [Democrats] are not going to vote for it,” Tuberville said.
His comments came as a Republican-backed continuing resolution once again failed to gain 60 votes in Congress’s upper chamber.
On Oct. 20, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a leader in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters, “We need to be taking a look at the 60-vote threshold.”
“At a minimum, why don’t we take a look at it for CRs [continuing resolutions], right?” he said.
In January 2022, Senate Democrats sought to change the filibuster to pass voting legislation.
