Senate Republicans brush off Trump’s push to end filibuster

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By David Morgan and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday rebuffed President Donald Trump’s call to end the longest government shutdown in history by terminating the filibuster, a rare rejection of the demands of a president who has mainly met with fealty by the Republican-controlled Congress. 

On the shutdown’s 36th day, Trump hosted Republicans at a White House breakfast where he implored them to jettison the Senate’s longstanding institutional hallmark later in the day, so that they could pass a bill to fund federal agencies through November 21 and then move quickly to partisan election reforms including a voter ID law and a ban on mail-in ballots.

“We have to get the country open. And the way we’re going to do it this afternoon is to terminate the filibuster,” Trump told the senators. “It’s time.”

But more than enough Republicans to prevent such an action from occurring made it clear to reporters upon returning to the Capitol that they would not get rid of the filibuster, which requires agreement by 60 of the Senate’s 100 members to pass most legislation.

“I know where the math is on this issue in the Senate, and it’s not happening,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters.  

Standing tough on the Senate filibuster marks a change for Republicans in Congress, who have shrugged off Trump’s efforts to erode congressional authority over federal spending, have voted to confirm top Cabinet nominees who lack standard qualifications and have largely turned a blind eye to his unilateral actions on trade.

TRUMP’S TOUGH WEEK

It also represents the latest test for a president who separately faces declining popularity among Americans, a Democratic sweep of off-year elections on Tuesday and signs that members of the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court were skeptical of his controversial tariff policy.   

The Senate on Tuesday failed for the 14th time to pass a bill to fund government operations, with Democrats demanding that Republicans negotiate an extension of expiring tax credits to help low-income Americans pay for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans hold 53 Senate seats and one of their number opposes the funding bill, meaning they need at least eight Democrats to meet the filibuster’s 60-vote requirement. So far, only two Democrats and an independent who caucuses with them have been willing to back the funding measure.  

Some hardline Republicans said they were willing to do Trump’s bidding. 

“Let’s not be schmucks, O.K.? Let’s be smart,” said Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican. “We know the minute Democrats get a majority in the Senate, they’re going to get rid of the filibuster … So we better beat them to the punch.”

Some Democrats did advocate for abolishing the filibuster early in President Joe Biden’s term when they had control of both chambers of Congress but ultimately opted not to do so.  

Republican Senator Josh Hawley said he could vote to end the filibuster if it meant opening the government and delivering food assistance to people who need it in his home state of Missouri.

“If you’re telling me now, I’m going to have to choose between people in my state eating or preserving the arcane rules of the Senate … I’m going to choose people in my state eating,” Hawley said. 

SENATORS DEFEND CHAMBER’S APPROACH

Changing Senate rules to overturn the filibuster would require only a simple majority of 51 votes, meaning Republicans could lose no more than two votes in the face of solid Democratic opposition if they intended to do so.

But far more than two Republicans vowed to retain the rule on Wednesday, saying that doing away with the filibuster would undermine the Senate’s traditional role as a bastion of bipartisan compromise. 

“I’d never vote to nuke the filibuster,” said Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who announced his retirement last summer after clashing with Trump over healthcare. 

Republican Senator James Lankford argued: “We need to be able to maintain a place in government where both sides have to talk to each other. I think that’s good for the country long term.” 

Senator Mike Rounds told reporters that Trump did well to point out that Republicans could act on their own if Democrats refuse to cooperate. 

“But there’s a lot of us that really think the Senate was designed in the first place to find a long-term, stable solution to problems. So we’ll listen to what the president has to say. But now it’s time for our Democrat colleagues to come back,” he said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Gram Slattery and David Morgan in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Scott Malone, Matthew Lewis and Deepa Babington)