Democrat Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called on Republicans to “nuke the filibuster” when it comes to government funding votes, effectively stripping the upper chamber of its own power to halt federal spending.
During an interview with Kayleigh McEnany, Fetterman argued that the Senate should carve out an exception to the filibuster rule for budget and appropriations bills, saying that doing so would make it “almost impossible” for either party to force a government shutdown in the future.
Fetterman went even further, suggesting the Senate should “remove itself of the power” to shut down the government, effectively handing permanent control over spending to whatever party holds a simple majority at any given time.
John Fetterman:
Well, I just know that two things must be true in this situation right now. SNAP depends on 2 million Pennsylvanians to feed themselves, and I believe it’s about 40 million Americans across the nation. That’s a big deal right now.And now we all realize that a lot of the premiums are going to go up, and we might want to address that too. We can support those two things, but I think it’s fundamentally wrong, regardless, to shut our government down for those things. The Republican side has their priorities; we have our priorities. I think we have to agree that our government must be open.
Kayleigh McEnany:
You think it’s time for Republicans to nuke the filibuster and end this thing?John Fetterman:
I think I broached that before. I think it’s entirely appropriate. I would remind all of us — the Democrats — we wanted to nuke the entire filibuster. I’m referring to right now carving out this specific situation. I’m not talking about eliminating the entire filibuster.It’s really not much different than about the en bloc nominees, and I think that was appropriate to do in that situation as well, too. Carving out the filibuster now would make it almost impossible to shut our government down in the future, regardless if it’s the Democrats or the Republicans doing these things. We should remove our own power to shut this down in this way.
WATCH:
JUST IN: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) calls on Republicans to NUKE the filibuster only in cases of the government shutting down – so it no longer requires 60 votes to remain open.
“Carving out the filibuster now would make it almost IMPOSSIBLE to shut our government down in the… pic.twitter.com/fx13lwKDVl
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 25, 2025