If Republicans hold together and the nuclear option passes, the Senate would vote again to break the filibuster of Gorsuch, this time needing just 51 votes to do so. Democrats were first to change Senate rules with 2013âs nuclear option. Normally, a filibuster can be overcome by invoking cloture, which requires three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes. Here are five facts on the nuclear option and what it means for the Senate: 1. Once the Senate starts changing the rules outside of its own rules, which is what the nuclear option does, there is nothing to stop a temporary ⦠Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to invoke the so-called ânuclear option,â changing Senate rules so that Republicans can approve the nomination of Neil Gorsuch by a simple majority vote. Reid: Senate deal to avert "nuclear option" is "good for everybody" Reid believed Thursday morning he had the votes necessary to change the Senate rules such that Republicans would no ⦠It's a reference to the "nuclear option." The Senate is headed toward a showdown when President Trumpâs Supreme Court nominee comes up for a final confirmation vote. This usage leaves open whether a course of action could achieve its result without compelling the Senate to set aside requirements of its existing procedures in the process. Some have suggested that proponents of ⦠PRO: The ânuclear optionâ that has been so covered and argued over recently is essentially a change in parliamentary rules within the United States Senate. At the time, three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn (then 60 votes) were required to end debate on nominations under Rule XXII of the Senate's standing rules. On Twitter, Mr. Trump suggested that Senate Republicans resort to the so-called "nuclear option" changing Senate rules to pass its own budget. Before the vote, Reid explained his plan on the Senate floor: "The Senate is a living thing, and to survive it must change, as it has over the history of this great country ⦠This is not about Democrats versus Republicans. Tweet . Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered the rarely used ânuclear optionâ to change the Senate rules. With Democrat Path to Nuclear Option on Filibuster Closed, Senate Leaders Proceed on Power-Sharing Agreement 3,058 Win McNamee/Getty Images. Reducing debate time allows a determined majority of the Senate vote to break, or change, the chamberâs rules, according to Vox. The âConstitutionalâ or âNuclearâ Option Updated May 26, 2005 Betsy Palmer Analyst in American National Government Government and Finance Division. Share on Facebook. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already used the nuclear option once â back in April 2017, after Democrats filibustered Trumpâs ⦠The looming clash is the latest evidence that Congress has ⦠Senate Republicans used the nuclear option in 2017 to overcome a Democratic filibuster and confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The Senate Thursday triggered the so-called "nuclear option" that allowed Republicans to break a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Dana Bash reports on the historic change to Senate rules that lets a simple majority approve some presidential nominees. The Senate majority, when each party has been in control, has used the ânuclear optionâ to make changes to the filibuster. The ânuclear optionâ is not a change in the rules, but a change in the way the rules are interpreted. Share. Changing Senate Rules: The âConstitutionalâ or âNuclearâ Option Summary Reports indicate possible attempts to curtail the use of filibusters in the Senate, perhaps in the 109 th Congress. The nuclear option leverages the fact that a new precedent can be created by a senator raising a point of order, or claiming that a Senate rule is being violated. The "nuclear option" would be the changing of Senate rules to enable judicial and executive nominees to be confirmed with just 51 votes instead of 60. With filibuster, the Senate has non-nuclear options By Howell E. Jackson, opinion contributor â 02/18/21 11:00 AM EST The views expressed by contributors are their own and not ⦠The Nuclear Option, if used, allows the Senate to move proposals to a vote with a 51% majority. The nuclear option â a change of the Senate rules by a simple majority â gained its name because it was seen as an explosive maneuver that ⦠Isa Cox February 19, 2021 at 4:39pm. Share. The ânuclear optionâ uses an ultra-vires mechanism that has never before been used in the SenateââEmployment of the [nuclear option] would require the chair to overturn previous precedent. After that, Senate ⦠The nuclear option was implemented for the first time, and the Senate rules were changed so nominees for cabinet posts and federal judgeships could be confirmed with just 51 votes. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made last-ditch attempts to forestall the nuclear vote, but his efforts to adjourn the Senate and postpone action until April 24 so the parties could try to work out a compromise failed on party-line votes. The government shutdown forced President Trump to cancel a trip to Florida this weekend to mark his one-year anniversary in office. This strategy, which must be invoked by the majority party, would today help increase the odds that more of President Trumpâs high-priority legislation could be passed. Led by Majority Leader Reid himself, they successfully invoked the nuclear option in a near-party-line vote, 52-48. Republicans and a few Democrats (including President Biden, Senators Joe Manchin-West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema-Arizona) currently oppose using the Nuclear Option. CBS Newsâ White House and senior foreign⦠The 2005 debate on the nuclear option was a political debate in the United States Senate regarding the possible use of the nuclear option to allow a simple majority to confirm judicial nominees. Harry Reid put politics ahead of principle when he deployed the so-called nuclear option in ⦠That is the nickname for a potential move by Republicans to unilaterally change Senate rules so that Gorsuch's nomination could be approved with a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, instead of the 60 votes now required. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., used a complex procedural maneuver, known as the nuclear option, to cut debate for lower-level nominees from 30 ⦠Nuclear option definition is - the option of using nuclear weapons in war. What's more likely to happen is that Democrats will invoke the "nuclear option," where a new precedent is created to override a standing rule, effectively ending the ⦠With little fallout from nuclear option, Senateâs legislative filibuster is in jeopardy Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) participates in a ⦠It established the need for only a simple majority (51 votes) to end the filibuster of the minority party during the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee, rather than the previously needed 60 votes. Ashley Oliver 25 Jan 2021. It was former Senate ⦠For the third time in six years, the majority party in the Senate detonated the so-called nuclear option on Wednesday to unilaterally change years-old rules of ⦠Arizona Senate Passes Nuclear Option, Election Officials May Not Be Able to Hide Machines from Investigation Much Longer. any form of ânuclear optionâ would afford the Senate means to circumvent the obstacles to change posed by the usual forms of proceeding. How to use nuclear option in a sentence. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Monday that a power-sharing agreement in the Senate no longer needs to stipulate that the filibuster rule remain intact after two Senate Democrats ⦠The nuclear option represents an unprecedented abuse of power by the majority that would override 200 years of Senate tradition in an effort to ensure the swift and unimpeded approval of extreme right judicial nominees who will undo Americansâ established rights and freedoms. The Arizona state Senate just passed a bill that would allow the state legislature to subpoena critical elections records, paving the way for a closer look into some of the most contested ⦠ânuclearâ floor proceedings were publicly contemplated in 2005 in relation to judicial nominations;4 in July 2013 similar actions were discussed in relation to presidential nominations to executive branch positions.5 On November 21, 2013, the Senate took actions to ⦠(This change eliminates the advantage any Senate minority party has to block legislation.)