Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has an idea to end the ongoing federal shutdown: "Let's make this a Republican-only vote."
The first-term senator pitched the notion during an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News, lamenting that the filibuster was allowing Democrats to "hold us hostage" indefinitely. His simple solution would be to use the GOP’s majority to simply go around the Democrats entirely.
"My point of view would be this: We have almost all Republicans on board," Moreno told host Laura Ingraham. "Maybe it's time to think about the filibuster. You say look, the Democrats would have done it. Let's just vote with Republicans. We got 52 Republicans. Let's go. And let's open the government. It may get to that."
Moreno went on to make several false claims about the Democrats' demands for re-opening the government, including "re-funding USAID" and "abortions on demand." But here's where Moreno is unfortunately correct: It really is wild that a majority of the Senate isn't enough to fund the government.
Previous congresses have both made it easier to hold up legislation, nixing the requirement to hold the Senate floor continuously, while also allowing majority votes for presidential nominees, up to and including Supreme Court justices. They've even developed special rules like budget reconciliation to avoid the filibuster altogether. But even stopgap funding bills, like the House-passed version the Senate has now rejected six times, remain subject to the legislative filibuster's provisions.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest column. Read the full column here.
