The shutdown is now likely to last four weeks as the Senate will be leaving for the weekend sometime today.
The House has remained out of session indefinitely with plans to return within 48 hours if anything changes. Some have alleged that Mike Johnson is keeping the House out of session to avoid swearing in Adelita Grijalva who won a special election.
Most legislation requires 60 votes to pass and several attempts to pass the continuing resolution have failed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed using the nuclear option to pass appropriations bills. She said this would deliver campaign promises and deliver funding for projects in congressional districts.
The Senate recently invoked the nuclear option to confirm a large number of nominees at once which normally requires 60 votes. Confirming nominees individually is by simple majority but allows 2 hours of debate for each nominee. Democrats have used this debate time to slow down the confirmation process.
The nuclear option is only used as a last resort as it severely damages partisan relations, but MTG says “Let’s be real, that ship has sailed a long time ago. There are no partisan relations.”
In 2015, the late Harry Reid invoked the nuclear option to confirm most nominees. He said at the time “It’s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete.” Two years later, Mitch McConnell did the same for Supreme Court nominees.
MTG urged Senate Republicans to “learn how to weld power when they have it and govern.” Is John Thune listening?