Trump urges Senate GOP to end filibuster for future votes

President Trump called on the Senate Friday to change its rules to require a 51-vote majority to pass individual bills without risking a Democratic filibuster.

“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 on Twitter. “Even though parts of healthcare could pass at 51, some really good things need 60. So many great future bills & budgets need 60 votes.”

If Republicans are going to pass great future legislation in the Senate, they must immediately go to a 51 vote majority, not senseless 60…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

…Even though parts of healthcare could pass at 51, some really good things need 60. So many great future bills & budgets need 60 votes….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

Trump’s tweets came hours after the Senate narrowly rejected a scaled-back ObamaCare repeal bill, effectively derailing Republicans’ current efforts to repeal parts of the healthcare law.

Doing away with the filibuster would not have ensured the “skinny” repeal bill’s success, a fact that Trump appeared to acknowledge in his tweets.

{mosads}The measure needed only 51 votes to pass, and three Republicans — Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) — voted against it.

But Trump said other future pieces of legislation would currently require 60 votes to pass without the threat of a filibuster, suggesting that the president could be looking toward other legislative initiatives. 

The president similarly called for the Senate to switch to a 51-vote majority earlier this month in order to pass a healthcare overhaul plan.

Likewise, doing away with the filibuster would not have guaranteed that the measure would pass, because it was being considered under budget reconciliation rules and required only 51 votes.