<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans can\u2019t agree on what to do about the SAVE America Act \u2014 a bill President Trump wants passed that would ban mail-in ballots and require voter ID and proof of citizenship at the polls. With the Senate\u2019s August recess coming up, some Republicans want to cancel it and stay in Washington until the bill gets done. Others aren\u2019t so sure that\u2019s the right move.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump has been pushing hard for the Senate to skip its five-week break and stay in session until the bill passes. Some of his strongest supporters in the Senate, including Alabama\u2019s Tommy Tuberville and Utah\u2019s Mike Lee, are backing him up on this. Other senators say they support the bill itself but haven\u2019t said whether they\u2019d cancel recess or go along with Trump\u2019s push to get rid of the filibuster \u2014 the Senate rule that normally requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.\n<\/p>\n
Parts of the bill already got attached to other legislation that passed the House last week, though the Senate hasn\u2019t voted on any of it yet.\n<\/p>\n
From the Daily Signal:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Senate has done NOTHING to deserve a five-week break,\u201d Tuberville told the Daily Signal. \u201cOther than the \u2018One Big, Beautiful Bill,\u2019 all the Senate has done is pass bills rebuking Trump and giving Democrats handouts. Our job is to deliver RESULTS for the American people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some people it does,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cFor Mitch McConnell, it would.\u201d \u201cLisa Murkowski has made it clear she doesn\u2019t favor his current iteration, as it would forbid mail-in ballots, which is very important in Alaska,\u201d Cassidy continued.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t going to be 50 votes to get rid of the legislative filibuster,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n
The most realistic path forward right now is through the budget resolution, which sets up the rules for a future spending bill. Because it counts as a budget measure, it could pass with a simple majority instead of needing 60 votes. But there\u2019s a catch \u2014 the current language would only let individual states choose to opt into a voter integrity program in exchange for federal money. It wouldn\u2019t force every state to require voter ID and citizenship checks the way the actual SAVE America Act would.\n<\/p>\n
Even that scaled-back version could run into resistance. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy suggested that some Republicans have concerns about the language Trump is requesting, specifically naming Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski as senators who may push back \u2014 Murkowski in particular because of how important mail-in voting is to Alaska.\n<\/p>\n
Other pieces of the bill got folded into larger packages, such as the National Defense Authorization Act, which Trump has called essential. But that bill still needs 60 votes to pass, since it doesn\u2019t qualify for the simple-majority process.\n<\/p>\n
Senator Lee said he\u2019s leading the push to keep the Senate in session until the bill passes, though he admits only a small group of senators has joined him. He said lawmakers are exploring several different strategies to get it done and that pieces of the legislation might need to pass separately before eventually being combined into one bill. On the filibuster, Lee said he\u2019d support forcing opponents into a \u201ctalking filibuster,\u201d where they\u2019d have to physically hold the floor to block the bill, though he thinks the budget process could still be used to pass key parts of it.\n<\/p>\n
Tuberville said he plans to stand with Lee in blocking any move to adjourn for recess. He\u2019s also urging Majority Leader Thune to do away with the filibuster altogether, arguing that voters didn\u2019t elect Republicans just so the party could protect its own procedural power.\n<\/p>\n
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham wasn\u2019t available for comment, but he\u2019s said publicly that he supports staying in Washington for as long as it takes.\n<\/p>\n
On social media, Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, along with Indiana Senator Jim Banks, all said the Senate should finish the bill before leaving town.\n<\/p>\n
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy made a similar call during a weekend television appearance, urging leadership to delay the break.\n<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Ohio Senator Jon Husted said the senator has never missed a vote and will stay as long as necessary if the bill comes up. He\u2019s already voted for it six times and plans to keep supporting it until it becomes law.\n<\/p>\n
Alabama Senator Katie Britt pointed to her own public statement promising to remain in Washington and work until the job is finished.\n<\/p>\n
Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he supports doing whatever\u2019s possible to get the SAVE America Act passed, but he doesn\u2019t believe staying in Washington through August would change anything, since Democrats still oppose the bill. He also made clear that eliminating the filibuster entirely isn\u2019t going to happen.\n<\/p>\n
Four senators \u2014 Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, and Lisa Murkowski \u2014 didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. All four previously voted against a similar effort back in June, when the late Senator Lindsey Graham tried attaching the SAVE America Act to a budget bill that ultimately passed the Senate. At the time, Tillis argued that changing election rules this close to the 2026 midterms would create confusion for states trying to adjust their voting systems on short notice.\n<\/p>\n
Let us pray that the SAVE America Act passes soon in the Senate, and that there will be no more stalemates.\n<\/p>\n
(Excerpt from the Daily Signal. Photo Credit: Ramaz Bluashvili\/pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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