Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman blasted his fellow Democrats for embracing the filibuster to keep the government shuttered indefinitely despite previously campaigning on nixing the procedural tool when they had control of the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has led the vast majority of the upper chamber’s Democratic caucus in filibustering a House-passed bipartisan spending bill that would end the shutdown on eleven separate occasions. Fetterman argued that many of his Democrat colleagues have grown to love the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for most legislation while in the minority — despite previously supporting its elimination when they had control of the upper chamber.
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“We ran on that. We ran on killing the filibuster, and now we love it,” Fetterman told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t want to hear any Democrat clutching their pearls about the filibuster. We all ran on it.”
Schumer led nearly all Democrats in voting to nix the filibuster for so-called voting rights legislation under former President Joe Biden.
Democratic turned independent Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin blocked Schumer from invoking the so-called nuclear option to change Senate rules in January 2022. If Schumer had been successful, Democrats would have been allowed to pass certain legislation using a 51-vote threshold.
A swath of Senate Democrats have also campaigned on eliminating the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation, arguing the procedural hurdle has a racist history and is deployed by Republicans to block Democratic-favored policy priorities.
Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, who succeeded Sinema in the upper chamber, previously labeled the filibuster “a relic of the Jim Crow era.” His Democrat counterpart, California Sen. Alex Padilla has argued the legislative filibuster stands in the way of “progress.”
Democrats’ apparent flip on the filibuster comes as Schumer has frequently used the filibuster to block Trump-backed bills in the Senate since Republicans took control of the upper chamber in January.
Democrats have filibustered legislation to sanction International Criminal Court officials, bar biological males from women’s sports and fund the government since Trump took office.
Fetterman is among a handful of Democratic caucus members who have crossed party lines to vote for a stopgap bill that would end the shutdown. The Pennsylvania Democrat has criticized his Democrat colleagues for leaning into the funding fight despite their constituents experiencing the brunt of the pain.
Fetterman also called on Republicans to scrap the filibuster for government funding bills to end the 21-day long shutdown.
“You know, it’s like, carve it out so we can move on,” Fetterman said. “I support it because it makes it more difficult to shut the government down in the future, and that’s where it’s entirely appropriate.”
Senate GOP leadership has repeatedly dismissed calls to pursue a filibuster carveout for government funding measures. However, some rank and file Republicans, including Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, have been supportive of changing Senate rules.
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