How to save the 'post-nuclear' Senate

In 2013, former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., invoked the so-called “nuclear option.” That is, with a simple majority vote, he and his Democratic majority changed Senate rules to make it easier to confirm certain executive and lower court nominees. No longer would supermajorities be required to confirm judges, as they had been under President George W. Bush. Now, a simple majority would do.

At the time, this was a very big deal. Some level-headed Democrats even warned that this decision would come back to bite. And it did.

In 2017, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., used that same “nuclear option” — a simple-majority vote to change Senate rules — to expand Reid’s rules to Supreme Court nominations. Although again controversial, this was probably an inevitable escalation, as Democrats had openly promised to do the same thing when they still expected to win the Senate and the presidency in 2016.

Last week, McConnell and his Republican majority tweaked the rules again, again using the nuclear option. Their change this time is more subtle, shortening the guaranteed period of post-cloture debate for each federal district court nominee and each sub-Cabinet executive branch nominee from 30 hours to just 2 hours.

Once again, this is a troubling change, but probably not for the reasons you might expect.