Senate Republicans poke holes in the filibuster despite vowing to protect it

Senate Republican leaders have made consequential moves this year to weaken the filibuster when it stands in the way of Trump's and the GOP's ambitions.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders have made consequential moves this year to weaken or end-run minority power when it stands in the way of their ambitions during the second Donald Trump administration and GOP control of Congress.

In three separate instances, they have knocked down long-standing precedents and established new rules to advance their goals in the face of Democratic opposition, eroding the power of the minority in the process.

In May, Republicans voted to roll back an electric vehicle standard set by California despite the parliamentarian, the Senate's in-house referee, advising that it was subject to 60 votes. Republicans overruled her, bypassing the filibuster and approving it with a GOP-only simple majority vote.

Weeks later, they reinvented the budget process in order to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — using an accounting trick to set a $0 sticker price for $3.8 trillion in tax cuts. The move was executed after Republicans refused Democratic calls to meet with the parliamentarian on whether the bill was eligible for a filibuster exception, which set an aggressive new precedent for what future majorities can do along party lines.

And this week, Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules in order to confirm a bloc of 48 Trump nominees. The move will reverberate for years, allowing the Senate to confirm unlimited numbers of a president’s sub-Cabinet nominees in one batch, without needing minority consent.