Greene: Senate Republicans 'playing games' on shutdown

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) blasted Senate Republicans for “playing games” instead of using the “nuclear option” to reopen the government, three days after funding lapsed.

“If Republican Senators wanted to pass the CR [continuing resolution] and reopen the government they could, by using the nuclear option to override the 60 vote rule and pass the CR with a simple majority vote,” Greene wrote on social platform X.

 “We have 53 [Republican] Senators,” she continued. “This is what I have proposed all along, only I would like Congress to pass new Republican appropriation bills, instead of [continuing resolutions], and use the nuclear option to pass them through the Senate.”

The Georgia Republican added that the Senate knows how to do it, having recently used the so-called “nuclear option” — a procedure that allows the party in power to update the rules with a simple majority vote — to push through dozens of President Trump’s nominees.

The Senate, set to vote again Friday, has thus far failed to pass a stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government. While several Democrats have crossed the line in favor of the House-passed proposal, the GOP needs to sway at least five more.

The Republican-led "clean" CR would fund the government until Nov. 21 and give Congress time to debate a larger appropriations bill. The resolution has failed in the upper chamber at least three times since it was passed in the House last month.

Triggering the procedure that would allow for a simple majority to pass the stopgap bill is seen as a “nuclear option” because of its potential to damage bipartisan relations. 

But Greene said “there are no partisan relations” to damage. 

“And as far as worrying that using the nuclear option would damage partisan relations, let’s be real, that ship has sailed a long time ago,” she wrote, adding, “Instead, Republicans need to learn how to [wield] power when they have it and govern."