Reid will employ a circuitous procedure to technically keep the Senate in session. Reid delays call on filibuster overhaul

He has a chance to go “nuclear” Thursday, but instead Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to punt a decision on the filibuster until later this month.

With a new Congress being sworn in Thursday, Reid had threatened to invoke what critics call the “nuclear option”: Changing filibuster rules by 51 votes on the first day of a new session, circumventing the usual requirement in which at least 67 senators are needed to change Senate rules.


Instead, he’ll employ a circuitous procedure to technically keep the Senate in its first legislative day by sending the chamber into recess — rather than adjourning. That move would keep the Senate in session, preserving his option of pushing forward with the so-called nuclear option at a later date.

That will buy Reid time for further negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to see if they can reach a bipartisan agreement, aides said Wednesday. It could delay the fight until the week of Jan. 22.

Supporters of the 51-vote route — which they call the “constitutional option” — say the Senate is in serious need of reform. The body, they argue, has become completely unworkable, constantly bogged down by filibusters. They want a series of rule changes to limit the power of the filibuster, including mandating that the non-stop talking sessions actually be carried out, rather than triggering one simply with a threat.

But there’s fear among some Democrats that changing the rules by 51 votes would forever alter the Senate as a body designed to protect minority party’s rights. Future majorities could cite the move to change whatever rules they want by 51 votes, a move critics fear would make the Senate too much like the House, where the majority can rule with an iron fist.

Reid, an institutionalist at heart, appears to be treading carefully. While he has threatened repeatedly to change the filibuster, including via the 51-vote option, he also knows whatever steps he takes could haunt Democrats in the future should they return to the minority.

Reid has been discussing the matter with McConnell, but those talks have been sidetracked as the two men engaged in furious horsetrading to avert the fiscal cliff. McConnell has warned Reid not to take the 51-vote route, saying it would further poison relations and set off a “bomb” in the Senate.

Both men have demands. McConnell wants GOP senators to be able to offer amendments when legislation comes to the floor; Reid wants to ensure he can bring legislation directly to the floor without Republicans forcing him to jump through procedural hoops and break filibusters.

No matter what they decide, senators would still be able to filibuster in any number of circumstances, a stalling tactic that requires 60 votes to break. Democrats will occupy 55 seats in the next Senate.

In 2011, Reid and McConnell headed off a similar push by Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), cutting a handshake agreement and vowing to make the Senate more workable. But Reid later said he made a mistake and vowed to change the filibuster rules in 2013.

But a bipartisan group of eight senators — led by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — are worried about the precedent that would be set by the so-called nuclear option. So they quietly drafted a compromise that would block filibusters on proceeding to legislation and guarantee the minority party at least two amendments on the floor. It also would make it easier to go to conference with the House and confirm certain presidential nominations. The agreement would last only two years.

Presentations were made at party lunches last week, but Reid has not said what he would do.

“He’s working with all sides, but he’s not happy with either one,” Udall told POLITICO.

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