GOP senator urges colleagues to change legislative rules

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is pushing Senate Republicans to change the rules of the chamber to make it easier to churn out legislative victories.

In an interview on Politico’s “Off Message” podcast, Tillis said that Republicans have turned to complaining about the Senate’s processes to explain legislative struggles and failures. 

“When people are fundamentally opposed to the policy, they start screaming process,” Tillis said. “It’s hard to debate the result. They may not like the process, but if they don’t like the process, change the rules. Otherwise, you should use whatever rules are available to produce the outcome.”

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Tillis, the finance chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, warned that Republicans will face difficult elections in the coming years if they fail to produce the results they’ve promised. 

The junior North Carolina senator’s comments come after a series of failed attempts in the Senate to repeal and replace parts of the Affordable Care Act, despite the GOP’s longtime promise to do so.

Some — notably Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — have called for a return to “regular order,” and have criticized how some have attempted to jam legislation through the chamber without going through the usual hearings and committee deliberations.

Tillis, however, said that people outside of Washington generally aren’t concerned with congressional processes or rules, and would simply prefer to see results.

“People cop out to the process narrative. Quite honestly, I don’t think most people in the United States care about the process. It just spins out good in Washington, D.C. People are judging us based on results.”