Politico has reported that Democratic Senator Harry Reid has officially moved for cloture on Richard Cordray’s nomination as CFPB Director as well as on several other nominations made by President Obama. Under current Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate and send the nominations to a vote by the full Senate.

Since Senator Reid undoubtedly expects Republicans to make good on their promise to
block Mr. Cordray’s  nomination, his move for cloture is widely viewed as the next step towards Senator Reid’s possible use of the “nuclear option,” meaning an attempt to change Senate filibuster rules to only require 51 votes for a nomination to proceed to a full Senate vote. Presumably, should Senator Reid decide to “go nuclear,” he will use his inability to obtain the 60 votes needed for cloture to justify an attempt to change the filibuster rules.