Chip Roy Pushes to End Senate Power Games in ‘Nuclear Option’

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) suggested Congress consider using the “nuclear option” to end the government shutdown.

“We need to be taking a look at the 60-vote threshold. We really do,” Roy said, as per The Hill. Bypassing the 60-vote threshold is considered the “nuclear option.”

“At a minimum, why don’t we take a look at it for CRs?” he suggested. “Why don’t we just say, look, I mean, we have a 50-vote threshold for the budget, we have a 50-vote threshold for reconciliation, why shouldn’t we have a 50-vote threshold to be able to fund the government?” Roy said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has criticized calls for the nuclear option. “Is it possible? Yes. … Is it wise? A lot of people would tell you it’s not,” he said earlier this month, Politico reported. “I mean, on the Republican side, I would be deeply concerned if the Democrats had a bare majority in the Senate right now.”

Johnson said during a news conference on Monday that” this is the first time in history that any party has had the audacity to shut down the government over a totally clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution.” He called the move a “political stunt, and it’s the first time it’s been done.”

“It is the most costly, most selfish, most dangerous political stunt in the history of the United States Congress,” he said.

“The Senate Democrats have zero shame about this,” Johnson added. “They don’t have any shame at all about the pain that they’re inflicting upon hardworking families, upon soldiers and law enforcement officers and veterans, the elderly and the disabled, women, infants, and children.”

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