President Trump: Senate 'Must' Eliminate 60-Vote Filibuster Rule

WASHINGTON, DC — After a devastating defeat for the Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Trump tweeted Friday morning that the Senate must eliminate its 60-vote filibuster rule.

"If Republicans are going to pass great future legislation in the Senate, they must immediately go to a 51 vote majority, not senseless 60..." he wrote. "Even though parts of healthcare could pass at 51, some really good things need 60. So many great future bills & budgets need 60 votes..."

Because of the Senate's rules, most legislation can be blocked by 41 or more senators, meaning a majority party needs 6o votes for a veto-proof hold over passing bills. Republicans used a procedure known as budget reconciliation to lower this threshold to a simple 51-vote majority on their health care bill, but this created additional limits on which provisions the legislation could include. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Many people tout the Senate's 60-vote threshold as an encouragement for bipartisanship and for building large coalitions around major legislative changes. Partisans on both sides, though, have at different argued that the rules create unbearable deadlock in the federal government. President Obama relied on extensive use of executive actions to implement his agenda during his tenure after he lost a brief 60-seat majority in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thus far not been open to overturning the current filibuster rules. Asked about the possibility in May, he said, "That will not happen."

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