Filibuster Reform: Senate Edges Closer To 'Nuclear Option'

WASHINGTON -- The Senate edged closer to a historic showdown over presidential appointments Monday night, with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) prepared to launch the so-called nuclear option after a rare all-senator meeting produced no compromise, but an agreement to keep talking.

"We had a very good conversation, that conversation is going to continue tonight," Reid said after the 3 1/2-hour meeting.

Reid declared himself fed up with GOP roadblocks last week and set a series of votes for Tuesday on seven of President Barack Obama's nominees for executive branch positions. Among them are nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, Labor Department and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Reid can use arcane Senate procedures to force votes on the stalled appointees with a simple 51-vote majority, instead of the 60 votes required to break a filibuster. Such a move is known as the "nuclear option" by opponents and the "constitutional option" by supporters.

Reid said after Monday's unusual meeting in the Old Senate Chamber that the nuclear option remained on the table.

One senator said that many of the Democrats told their counterparts in the chamber that "we'd rather fix this. We'd rather fix it without a rule change. It was fixed without a rule change in 2005 because Democrats agreed not to filibuster." It was clear, the senator said, that "folks want their to be a resolution short of a rules change."

"It's not at all clear" how that happens, the senator said. "We could get the votes tomorrow. We could get an understanding tonight between the leaderships."