To end government shutdown, Trump suggests Senate use 'nuclear option'

Eliza Collins | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump calls for ‘nuclear option’ if government shutdown continues President Trump suggested to Senate Republicans to trigger the so-called Nuclear Option if the shutdown continues. Veuer's Maria Mercedes Galuppo (@mariamgaluppo) has more.

WASHINGTON – As the partial government shutdown stretched into its second day, President Trump brought up one of his favorite suggestions to break a congressional logjam: End the Senate rule that requires 60 votes for legislation to pass.

Trump is calling on Republicans to invoke the "nuclear option" to try to pass a "real, long term" spending bill rather than continue funding the government through a short-term measure.

Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.’s! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018

In the House, Republicans can pass legislation with only their own members because of the size of their majority — and they did so Thursday night to advance a spending bill to keep the government open.

However, the vote fell short in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow 51-49 majority and passing most legislation requires bipartisan support. Even if the whole party sticks together, they need at least nine Democrats to get on board.

“If ordinary rules prevailed, the majority rules in the Senate, the government would be open as of today," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said, when asked on CNN Sunday about Trump's call to change the rules.

"It also responds to this constant criticism we hear: ‘Oh, you Republicans control the White House and the House and the Senate, why can’t you just fund the government?' " he continued. "It takes 60 votes in the Senate. We cannot open the government without Senate Democrats' support."

But even though the 60-vote threshold makes it difficult for Republicans to pass their priorities, so far, there doesn't seem to be an appetite on either side of the aisle to get rid of the rule.

"The Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation," David Popp, who is the spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told USA TODAY.

Democrats also objected. "That would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers. We have to acknowledge a respect for the minority," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on ABC.

More: Blame game: Congress reconvenes but makes no apparent progress on ending shutdown

More: House passes short-term spending bill, but legislation faces long odds in Senate

The government ran out of funding at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, after the Senate blocked a continuing resolution that would have kept the government open for four weeks and extended the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The final vote tally in the Senate early Saturday morning was 50-49, with the majority of Democrats and a handful of Republicans voting against advancing the short-term spending bill. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., missed the vote because he was being treated for brain cancer.

Government operations began ramping down on the one-year anniversary of Trump's presidency.

Democrats opposed the short-term spending bill because it did not include protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, or "DREAMers," and also did not address a broad array of their other domestic spending priorities.

Trump announced in September he would end the Obama-era order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protected 800,000 young immigrants from deportation, which his administration says was an unconstitutional use of authority by the executive branch. Trump gave Congress six months to find a solution for the DREAMers. While there have been multiple bills introduced in Congress, GOP leadership has not committed to bringing up any specific legislation.

Republicans are pinning the blame squarely on the Senate Democrats. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on CBS that Democrats shut down the government "over an unrelated immigration issue with a deadline weeks away."

"This is ridiculous. Open the government back up, and then we’ll get back to negotiations," Ryan said on CBS.

Early Saturday morning, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he had offered a possible solution that Democrats would support, but it was rejected by the White House.

In exchange for a $20 billion commitment for a wall along the southern border, Schumer said Democrats were seeking a commitment to vote on one large spending bill that included a path to legalization for the DREAMers, disaster aid and other domestic spending.

On CNN, Mulvaney said that just "authorizing" money for a wall was not enough.

"You can authorize here left and right — it’s appropriating the money that makes a difference,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney added that the Democrats' ask was "very large" and they needed to vote to reopen the government to have time to negotiate. On Saturday, White House aides said they would not negotiate on immigration until the government reopened.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on NBC Sunday that Democrats were making it hard for compromises to get made because they were telling the media what happened in private meetings.

"It’s hard for the president to negotiate, it’s hard for the president or for Senate Republicans to negotiate when the Democrats sitting across the table don’t get what they want, they run out and they misrepresent what was a good faith effort to listen and to build trust," Cotton said about the meeting between Schumer and Trump on Friday, at which Schumer said he offered up funding for a wall.

Lawmakers stayed in Washington to try to come up with a solution, but they spent much of the Saturday huddled in party-line meetings, emerging only to point fingers at the other party.

McConnell and Schumer had not spoken to each other in more than 24 hours, Schumer's spokesman Matt House said Sunday morning.

There is a vote scheduled for Monday at 1 a.m. on a slightly shortened spending bill — for three weeks instead of four.

Ryan said such a bill could pass in the House. However, it is not clear there are enough votes to move that legislation forward in the Senate.

More: Government shutdown: 7 key players to watch in spending impasse