John Fetterman Urges GOP to Use Nuclear Option to Reopen Government: ‘I Don’t Want to Hear Any Democrat Clutching Their Pearls’
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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is urging his Republican colleagues to use the so-called “nuclear option” and get rid of the filibuster for spending bills in order to reopen the federal government.
In comments made to reporters on Tuesday, Fetterman — one of the three members of the Democratic caucus to vote in favor of a continuing resolution to fund the government at the outset of the shutdown fight — deplored the consequences of the failure to pass it.
“There are no winners here. It’s not getting better every day here. People are going to start to get really hungry and I’ve been fully, fully committed to fund SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], open up the government,” said Fetterman, arguing that people “need to eat.”
“This is just bad political theater. Open it up,” he added.
He then said that he would support the GOP ditching the filibuster — and thus the 60-vote requirement to end debate on legislation — in order to do just that.
“Carve it out for that, absolutely,” said Fetterman. “We ran on that, we ran on killing the filibuster and now we love it. Carve it out so we can move on. 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.”
“I don’t want to hear any Democrat clutching their pearls about the filibuster. We all ran on it,” he continued.
Every member of the caucus, save for former Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), voted to get rid of the filibuster in a failed effort to pass former President Joe Biden’s elections overhaul back in 2022.
In August of last year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), then the majority leader, indicated that the party would move forward with the legislative reform if his party prevailed in the upcoming election.
Fetterman has bucked his party on a number of notable issues since taking office in 2023, including Israel and immigration.
