{"id":19801,"date":"2026-03-09T20:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-talking-filibuster-more-complicated-and-risky-than-people-realize\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:33:04","slug":"thune-talking-filibuster-more-complicated-and-risky-than-people-realize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-talking-filibuster-more-complicated-and-risky-than-people-realize\/","title":{"rendered":"Thune: Talking filibuster \u2018more complicated and risky\u2019 than people realize"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune sent a warning shot Monday over the talking filibuster, saying the procedural playcall is \u201cway more complicated\u201d than many supporters realize. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular approach in terms of the process is much more complicated and risky than people are assuming at the moment,\u201d Thune told reporters, cautioning that a talking filibuster without forcing through a formal rules change \u2014 for which there isn\u2019t the votes \u2014 could take up months of Senate floor time. <\/p>\n

Thune\u2019s comments came after President Donald Trump urged the Senate to quickly take up and pass GOP-led voting legislation, known as the SAVE America Act \u2014 even if it means invoking a talking filibuster, which would force Democrats to physically hold the floor in order to block consideration of the bill. <\/p>\n

Trump also pitched expanding the bill\u2019s scope beyond voting to include red meat issues like banning men from participating in women\u2019s sports and prohibiting gender affirming surgery for children. Thune said Monday it would \u201cmake sense\u201d for the House to send an updated bill to reflect Trump\u2019s latest priorities. <\/p>\n

Thune is the target of a fierce online pressure campaign to skirt the Senate\u2019s 60-vote legislative filibuster \u2014 coming both from House Republicans and what the majority leader characterized Monday as a \u201cpaid influencer ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the pitch from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and his allies has been that Republicans could force Democrats into a talking filibuster without having to officially change the Senate rules or precedents. Thune reiterated Monday that formally nuking the legislative filibuster is \u201cnot going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ve said all along and I\u2019ve told him and others \u2014 that I can\u2019t guarantee an outcome,\u201d Thune said, referring to Trump. \u201cI can\u2019t guarantee a result if the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster. We don\u2019t have the votes to do that, and so that\u2019s just not a realistic option and I\u2019ve made that clear to anybody who\u2019s asked.\u201d <\/p>\n

But a significant number of GOP senators are also skeptical of a talking filibuster even without changing the Senate\u2019s rules. Some believe the gambit would permanently weaken the 60-vote legislative filibuster. Others think the procedural option being floated by Lee and others is unworkable because it would let Democrats bog down the floor and potentially hijack the bill for any proposal for which they could get at least 50 votes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe process and how you ultimately try and get a result is still unclear to me based on all the research we\u2019ve done,\u201d Thune said Monday about invoking a talking filibuster, adding that conversations are still ongoing within the conference about the process. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Majority Leader John Thune sent a warning shot Monday over the talking filibuster, saying the procedural playcall is \u201cway more complicated\u201d than many supporters realize. \u201cThis particular approach in terms of the process is much more complicated and risky than people are assuming at the moment,\u201d Thune told reporters, cautioning that a talking filibuster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}