The SAVE America Act Gets Its Long-Awaited Debate

The SAVE America Act will be brought to the floor as soon as Tuesday for robust debate over voter ID legislation that President Donald Trump calls his “Number 1 priority.”

The bill will be brought as a “message from the House,” a procedure that requires a simple majority vote to begin debate — but leaves the 60-vote threshold in place for its final passage, a source familiar with the process told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Lawmakers will likely discuss the legislation and introduce amendments for several days as Republicans seek to put Democrats on the record over multiple policy issues beyond just strengthening voter identification requirements. (RELATED: How Using Talking Filibuster For Trump’s SAVE Act May Be Minefield For GOP)

“We’re going to use the amendment process to put Democrats on the record—not just on election security, but several issues of great importance to millions of Americans as outlined by President Trump,” Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee told the DCNF.

Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt has worked closely with the White House and Lee to prepare a substitute amendment to replace the bill’s current form with a strengthened version that includes Trump’s additional asks, the senator shared in a video posted to X Monday. These include curbing mail-in voting except for military, illness and disability, removing men from women’s sports and ending transgender surgeries on minors. The amendment will also include the legislation’s original voter ID policies.

There could be additional standalone amendments introduced, and all will be subject to a 60-vote threshold to end their debates, according to the source familiar.

There is still opposition among Republicans in the upper chamber, namely from Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Murkowski said in February she would not support the bill and Tillis opposes the procedural options to pass it.

It is also unclear if Sen. Mitch McConnell will vote to begin debate, creating a razor-thin margin that could force Vice President JD Vance to break a 50-50 tie just to get the bill on the floor.

Rachel Bovard, the Senior Director of Policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, told the DCNF the lack of unity surrounding the SAVE America Act is “distressing” considering the intense support voters have for the bill’s policies.

“It’s distressing in the sense that this is an 80% issue nationally, but it’s also extremely popular with their own voters,” Bovard said. “I think you want to see Republican unity on things like this.”

One of the biggest differences between bringing the bill to the floor as a “message from the House” as opposed to using the talking filibuster — Lee’s preferred method to advance it —  is the opportunity to take breaks in debate. Putting it forward as a “message” will allow a pause in debate on the SAVE Act to vote to fund DHS if a bipartisan agreement is reached.

Bovard said it was a “positive development” that Senate Majority Leader John Thune was bringing the legislation to the floor as a message from the House, but still stressed the need to come back to the bill if there were pauses in debate for other business.

“You hope that if for whatever reason John Thune has to move off this bill to something else like [DHS funding] that he’ll come back to it. This won’t be a one and done. This will be, ‘Hey, I understand how important this is. We’ve done good work here. We’ve made some progress. We’re working with Democrats to try to come to an agreement,’” Bovard said. “‘We’re moving off this bill to go to DHS but we’re going to come back to it in the future. This debate is not over.’”

“Because that’s how major legislation passes. It’s a concentrated effort, it’s a diligence to the task,” she added.

Forcing Democrats into a talking filibuster of the bill may potentially gridlock the Senate floor and extend debate time after every adjournment, putting off other vital priorities for the party.

The debate process will require lawmakers to remain close to the Senate floor at all times, as Democrats will likely make repeated calls to bring all senators to the floor to drag out the process. Democrats are also expected to force a vote on curbing Trump’s use of military force in Iran in the coming week — which would force a break in the SAVE Act’s debate because it is privileged.

The bill will almost certainly fail upon final passage due to strong Democratic opposition making it unlikely the legislation receives 60 votes in favor. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Sunday the SAVE Act is “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation” he’s ever seen and that the caucus “really feels strongly that this would be a horror, one of the worst things that’s happened in the history of this country in terms of allowing people to vote.”

“Nobody can guarantee a legislative outcome. And I think the conservative movement, the grassroots, people understand that. What we have been asking for is for the Senate Republicans to take it seriously,” Bovard told the DCNF.

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