Senators Find Time for College Sports, but Not for Election Integrity

For months, conservatives have asked, pleaded, and ultimately demanded action on the SAVE America Act. The legislation seeks to restore confidence in America’s elections at a time when voters in both parties are losing faith in the process.

A Pew Research Center survey released this week found that just 55% of Americans are confident this November’s midterms will be conducted fairly and accurately—down from 61% ahead of the 2024 elections and 64% in 2022. Notably, the decline no longer splits along party lines. Republicans and Democrats now express similar levels of doubt, even as they worry about different things.

The SAVE America Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, photo identification to cast a ballot, and other commonsense election reforms to reduce fraud in our elections.

Instead, senators have decided to spend their time debating … college sports.

You read that correctly. The integrity of our elections hangs in the balance, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune decided it was a higher priority to debate a bill addressing the NCAA’s name, image, and likeness rules.

The College Sports Bill

The measure is the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan effort led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. It aims to create a federal framework to the NCAA amid growing concerns about the patchwork of rules that govern college athletics.

The bill was hanging by a thread until the final week of July. That’s when the Big Ten and SEC—the two powerhouse conferences in college sports—decided to back the legislation. University presidents from those conferences signed off once they secured concessions.

Even if it clears the Senate, there’s no guarantee it will win passage in the narrowly divided House, which has already left Washington for August recess anyway.

A Question of Priorities

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in favor of fixing the problems with NCAA. College athletics is a mess, and I don’t fault the senators who are making an effort to clean up the problems.

But I certainly wouldn’t rank it above the SAVE America Act. And I’m hardly alone. Conservatives are rightly outraged.

“It’s outrageous, frankly, that [John Thune] gets that sports bill to the floor before securing election integrity. Skip the recess, pass the SAVE America Act, and then move on to less important topics,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts wrote on X.

To which Lee, sponsor of the SAVE America Act, replied: “The Senate should be trying to SAVE America before trying to save the NCAA.”

Don’t Go Home

As the August recess approached this week, 20 Republican senators asked their leadership to keep the Senate in Washington until it finished the job on the SAVE America Act.

Thune essentially dismissed the idea Tuesday, pointing to five failed votes, ongoing Democratic obstruction, and no path to overcome the 60-vote threshold.

“We’ve had five votes on it already,” Thune said on Fox News. “We’ll figure out a way to get yet another vote on the SAVE America Act, but I don’t expect the Democrats to change their view. The issue here is all 47 Democrats, all five times we’ve voted on the SAVE America Act on the floor of the United States Senate, have voted no.”

The Republican leader treated that as the end of the conversation rather than the beginning of a fight.

Force Democrats to Debate

Gallup’s polling found 84% of Americans favor requiring photo ID to vote and 83% support proof of citizenship when registering to vote. These are the closest things to consensus that exists in American politics right now.

Thune acknowledged as much in his Fox News interview.

“This is an issue about going after Democrats, making this an issue in the fall campaigns, and holding them accountable for being on the wrong side of an 80-20 issue with the American people,” Thune said.

So then why not keep Democrats in Washington and force them to actually debate the SAVE America Act?

When the will exists, the Senate is remarkably capable. Five weeks from now, senators return with fewer legislative days before November. Conservatives will remember which bill took priority and which one got a shrug.