Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that Republicans have 36 hours to agree to a filibuster reform plan or face the “nuclear option.”
“I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on,”
the Nevada Democrat told the Hill. “If not, we’re going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,”
Reid is in talks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on changing Senate rules to prevent GOP legislators from using the filibuster often.
The “nuclear option” is employing a simple majority vote of the chamber to change the filibuster rules, which parliamentary experts told the Hill has never been done.
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New Mexico Democratic Sen. Tom Udall embraced Reid’s plan, saying that the U.S. Constitution empowers each congressional chamber to set its own rules.
Reid predicted that fellow Democrats would back him in reforming the Senate’s filibuster rules unilaterally, the Hill reports.
“We’re making progress,” Reid told the Hill of his negotiations with McConnell. “Not done yet. We got a long way to go.”
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