Capitol agenda: GOP wants to move past the SAVE America Act
Congressional Republicans aren’t allowing President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act ultimatum to uproot their legislative agenda ahead of the midterms.
Lawmakers made clear Tuesday they’re eager to wash their hands of the partisan elections legislation the day after Trump told lawmakers he needs that bill on his desk before he agrees to sign anything else.
House Republicans gathered for their retreat in Doral, Florida, quickly called this a Senate problem, then continued to talk about their policy ambitions for the remainder of 2026. Now Senate GOP leaders are moving fast to show Trump that passage of the SAVE America Act isn’t feasible — in hopes they, too, can move on to other things.
— Senate show vote: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to bring the GOP election bill to the floor next week subject to the chamber’s 60-vote threshold — guaranteeing its eventual failure given united Democratic opposition.
He’ll do so despite an intensifying pressure campaign from the likes of Trump, fellow Senate Republicans and Elon Musk to force a “talking filibuster,” where Democrats would have to hold the floor continuously if they want to block the bill.
“The votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “I’m the one who has to be the clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve.”
The majority leader said senators will “continue to convey” the unsolvable math problem to the president and take the heat as it comes.
“It just kind of comes with the territory,” Thune told POLITICO. “You just roll with it, you know. It’s the times in which we live.”
And in the end, Thune is hoping Trump will relent and agree to sign other legislation, including a bipartisan housing affordability package that 89 senators voted to advance Tuesday afternoon.
— House has its own plans: Meanwhile in Doral, House Republicans are on the final day of their annual policy summit hammering out their election-year legislative goals. An updated SAVE America Act, Trump’s “No. 1 priority,” isn’t at the top of that list.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other top GOP leaders refused to commit to passing the elections overhaul through the House a third time with the changes Trump wants, which include a near-total mail-voting ban many Republicans oppose. Instead, leaders outlined a series of targets that could advance with some Democratic support — like a reauthorization of key water projects, a highway infrastructure package and a slimmed-down farm bill.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) raised the need for a new version of the House GOP’s signature immigration bill with changes to the guest worker visa program. An earlier iteration of that package passed in 2023, when it was known colloquially as H.R. 2, but has been stalled since Republicans regained its governing trifecta last year.
Leaders also made clear they’re not ruling out passing a second megabill through the budget reconciliation process, but members are poised to head back to Washington with no consensus on what such a bill could include. Many Republicans remain convinced it would be a waste of time to pursue another party-line package given the House GOP’s threadbare, fractious majority.
What else we’re watching:
— Key Epstein deposition: The House Oversight Committee will depose Jeffrey Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn Wednesday as part of the congressional investigation into the late convicted sex offender. The panel is poised to grill Kahn, a co-executor of Epstein’s estate, on how Epstein accumulated his wealth.
— CBO director testifies: A Senate Finance subcommittee will hold a 3 p.m. hearing on the fiscal outlook for the next decade, featuring testimony from Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.