Current Status How bad is the impasse that the Senate is dealing with in DC you might wounder? Well it is wild to put it lightly and while the Senate continues to hold hearings and markups for additional legislation, some of which is bipartisan, you get the sense now that tension is rising in the Senate and spilling over into these other areas not connected to government funding. Its very interesting to see some of the Democratic messaging for this current situation because it does not match up well with well the facts.

One of the biggest talking points for the Democrats has been "you have the House, the Senate, and the Presidency you should be able to pass a budget." Yet they also know that is just well a lie because when Senate Republicans established the Senate Rules this year they kept the long held Rule of the filibuster in place. Other comments like this is all Republican don't align with the simple fact that in the House one Democrat did vote in favor for the clean CR and in the Senate there have been 3 who have voted in favor for it.

Something in the Senate that you do not really see in the House is the so called bipartisan Senate "gang" this is made up of a group of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who have in recent years played a critical role in breaking stalemates like this. In 2018 the gang was responsible for ending the 2018/2019 partial government shutdown and literally broke out a talking stick to reach a solution. However, in recent years many of the key players in the gang have retired. Republican Senators Rob Portman and Mitt Romney have left and from the Democratic side Joe Machin and Kyrsten Sinema have also retired.

As someone who works on the House side our Senate Floor camera shot can sometimes catch this group meeting and it is something I have been paying attention to. On the Republican side Markwayne Mullin has seemed to have taken a leading role with Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski playing a supporting role as a long time member. On the Democratic side Colorado Senator Chris Coons has been a leading figure with retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire also playing a role.

Sadly, the Senate gang has had one message for those of us in DC. If you think we are going to be able to end the shutdown don't count on it.

New Option For the last couple Congresses certain Members from both parties have started to call for the end of the filibuster. If you do not know the filibuster is a political tactic used in the Senate that delays or prevents a vote on legislation. To "break" the filibuster requires 60 votes and the reasoning for the creation of this was simple. It allowed the minority party to be able to check the power of the majority party. The last time either party had a filibuster proof majority was 1979 due to 60 votes typically requiring a handful of minority party members to cross over and sign on.

Getting rid of the filibuster though while it would benefit the current party in power it can also turn around a bite them. There in an option called the "nuclear option" which allows the Senate to override a standing rule by a simple majority bypassing the 60 vote rule. Given the significance of this it has only been used twice. Once in 2013 by then Senate Leader Harry Reid (Democrat) and once again in 2017 by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican). With the future consequences of evoking this option Republican Senators have been against using it for now, though it has been rumored to have been discussed, and instead are working on another idea.

This morning it came out that Senate Republicans had begun holding informal discussions about creating a carve out for reopening the government. The goal of this carve-out is to ensure that the 60 vote threshold remains intact but there are is some sort of way to allow a majority to vote to reopen the government. How that looks and what sort of precedence it sets will be a monumental development for the Senate. It should be noted that some of the strongest supporters of the filibuster on the Republican side are some of the ones going on the record now saying ideas need to be explored. This includes Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Susan Collins of Maine. I am sure we will begin to hear more about what the future holds with these ideas/options in the coming days.

CNBC Interview This Morning As I am writing this on CNBC Sen. Shaheen, a retiring Democrat from New Hampshire, was asked a rather simple question by Joe Kernen that caused her to get visibly irritated. In the future would she "not criticize Republicans if they shut down the government over something they did not like." While she tried to spin up leaders talking to each other and wiggle her way out of it Joe kept the pressure on her and she eventually got to the point of saying she blames both parties and will "continue to call it like I see it."

Becky Quick asked a follow-up that was pretty hard pressed as well. What is the solution/what are you going to do if the government isn't reopened by the end of the month and SNAP benefits run out of money. Again Sen. Shaheen did not have an answer saying she hopes they get funded because people depend on them.... I dont wanna sound like a smart ass but ya know... if you pass the funding bill.... guess what.... they would be funded but ya know what do I a lowly House Staffer know about how funding the government works.