Senate Prepares for SAVE America Act Marathon Debate

This week, the Senate will vote on the SAVE America Act—a bill requiring photo identification and proof of citizenship in federal elections—but only after a grueling, multi-day debate.

Conservative backers in Washington are cautiously applauding the move by Senate Republican leadership to hold a lengthy debate followed by a vote, forcing Democrats to publicly stand against the popular policy.

However, they say they want the bill to ultimately become law.

“Democrats wish they could quickly vote against the SAVE America Act and avoid public scrutiny for their opposition to election security. We’re not letting them off that easy,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the bill’s Senate author, told The Daily Signal in a statement.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the bill’s author in the House, also told The Daily Signal he was pleased by the move, but said, “we just need to pass it and we don’t need excuses.”

“The fact that they’re going to put something on the floor, put amendments in queue… and then force some degree of focus and debate on this for some period of time is a step forward and I guess a victory in the sense that it means maybe we’ll have some debate and process here,” Roy told The Daily Signal.

He continued, “I’ll reserve judgement until I see what they really do, because what I don’t want is kind of fancy failure theater… I want to see a real effort.”

The bill, as passed by the House, does not include additional provisions that President Donald Trump has called for, such as restrictions on transgender surgeries for minors and on mail-in ballots.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., has an amendment that would insert these policies into the bill.

Both Roy and Lee have advocated a “talking filibuster” approach to pass the bill, under which Republicans could enforce Senate rules to make Democrats speak continuously to block the SAVE America Act.

Republicans are now opting for a different approach, which will force a protracted debate on the bill but will ultimately require 60 votes to commence a final roll call.

In the first step of the process, Republicans are expected to vote on a motion to proceed to consideration of the House-passed bill on Wednesday, which will require a simple majority of 51 votes. Vice President JD Vance will be able to break a tie, if necessary.

Then, Republicans will hold off on what would typically be the next step—filing cloture to end the debate.

Instead, they are expected to devote multiple days to debating the bill on the Senate floor.

A goal of the debate would be to reveal where Republicans and Democrats alike stand on photo identification laws.

Roy told The Daily Signal that members who oppose the bill “should be shamed roundly and rebuked.”

Democrats are likely to remain in steadfast opposition, as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has called it “the end of our democracy” and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called it “a voter suppression bill.”

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a fellow member of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Signal in a statement on the SAVE America Act, “If they can’t get such an important, popular bill through the Senate then it is the Senate that is broken.”

Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., was critical of the approach in a statement to The Daily Signal, saying that without the talking filibuster, “this legislation is designed to fail on arrival.”

The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not immediately respond to Brecheen’s statement.

The process is likely to test the stamina of the Senate.

Democrats will have the ability to force a quorum call—meaning they can frustrate Republicans’ efforts by forcing them to show that they have 51 senators present during debate.

This means Republicans will have to stay close to the Capitol in order to maintain control of the floor.

At the end of the process, Republicans will need to file for cloture to bring debate to an end. 

Barring the unlikely defection of over a half dozen Democrats, the process would likely end with the bill failing to advance.

Rachel Bovard, Vice President of Programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, has called on Senate Republicans to force Democrats into a prolonged debate on the bill.

“I think it’s great,” Bovard told The Daily Signal in a statement of the leadership’s move. “The conservative movement has been asking for a robust deliberative process on this bill and that is hopefully what we will get here.”

“By just getting on the bill and not filing cloture immediately the senate floor will be more open than it has been in years,” she added.

Virginia Grace McKinnon contributed to this report.

The post Senate Prepares for SAVE America Act Marathon Debate appeared first on The Daily Signal.