Ron Johnson

Senator Ron Johnson, (R-WI), has renewed his call to end the filibuster after Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

He said during a Fox News interview on Sunday that the GOP majority needs to change the Senate’s rules, which require 60 votes to end debate and pass most legislation, to fund the Department of Homeland Security and protect against similar attacks. DHS ran out of annual appropriations in February, although many of its operations have continued with funds from other legislation.

Johnson urged his colleagues to resort to the so-called “nuclear option” if Democrats continue blocking a bill that would fund the department.

“If we don’t get that, again, I’ve been pretty public about agreeing with President Trump, we need to end that filibuster,” the senator said. “This gridlock, this obnoxious obstruction by the Democrats cannot go on.”

DHS’s Secret Service, which defended President Donald Trump and other administration officials during the Saturday attack, has been receiving pay outside of the regular appropriations. Johnson and other Republicans in Congress and the White House have used the shooting, which left one agent injured, to demand Democrats help fund the department as domestic and international threats rise.

Representative Nick Langworthy, a New York Republican, urged the House on Monday to consider a bill that would fund every DHS agency but ICE and Customs and Border Protection, for which Democrats have demanded reforms. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters that Congress’s “reckless political gamesmanship” with DHS was a “national scandal.”

It’s unclear whether Saturday’s attack will influence Democrats’ stance on funding the department. Top senatorial members of the party haven’t commented on the effect the shooting could have on their demands.

They could hold firm, trust Majority Leader John Thune’s commitment to preserving the filibuster and let Republicans continue to try to fund DHS through reconciliation, a challenging process used to sidestep minority opposition. Senator Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, said last week that his party was ready to battle the GOP during a night of amendment votes for the Republican budget bill.

“This will be a reconciliation of reckoning for Senate Republicans who will continue to pay the price for their actions tonight,” Schumer said. “This reconciliation, or this budget act, will show who's on whose side, and clearly, if Republicans vote against our amendments, they're not on the side of the American people.”