GOP triggers marathon Senate fight to expose Dems' opposition to Trump-backed voter ID bill
Senate Republicans on Tuesday successfully launched their floor takeover to put Senate Democrats on record against Trump-backed voter ID legislation.
It’s a move to shift the spotlight from internal GOP divisions over the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act onto Senate Democrats, who are ultimately withholding the needed votes to pass the bill.
"Not a single Democrat will support the SAVE Act. It is a radical bill," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.
"And if Republicans try to burn time on this legislation here on the floor, we will oppose them for as long as it takes."
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It’s also the culmination of a pressure campaign on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., from President Donald Trump, conservatives in his conference and a fervent online campaign to put the bill on the floor.
Trump said he spoke with Thune Monday morning about the forthcoming process and said "he’s trying."
"I hope John Thune can get it across the line," Trump said.
When asked if Trump understood the path forward, Thune said, "Well, I think he wants us to fight for our position, which we will, and then we'll see what the Democrats want to do."
Still, opening up what will be a multi-day marathon debate on the bill wasn’t without its hiccups. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined all Senate Democrats to block the legislation. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who threatened to do everything he could to block the bill, did not vote.
While the lobbying campaign from Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., was partly successful in getting the bill on the floor, it is still destined to fail.
Lee said during a video call on X Monday that he and Trump were confident they could win the floor fight if Republicans "get this thing teed up, and we do not leave it until it's passed."
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Lee and a cohort of Republicans pushed Thune to enact a talking filibuster to effectively wear down Senate Democrats and lower the threshold to pass the SAVE America Act to just a simple majority vote.
But there wasn’t unanimous support among Republicans for the move, making a novel idea into a math problem that could easily backfire on the GOP, given that Republicans don’t have the votes to block several Democratic amendments that would drastically change the bill.
"If your senators don’t support using the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, you might need to replace them," Lee said on X.
With the initial hurdle passed, the Senate will now begin the marathon debate and amendment process. Amendment votes will only come at the tail end of the floor battle and will require Republicans to take another procedural test that Democrats could block.
And each amendment, which Republicans will control, has to hit a 60-vote threshold, meaning that none of the provisions that Trump wants to be attached to the bill will survive.
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Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., will head off the flurry of amendments with a package of add-ons that include Trump’s desired modifications to the bill.
Those include ending mail-in ballots, with exceptions for military service members, disabilities and illness; banning men from women’s sports; and halting transgender surgeries on minors.
Halting mail-in balloting isn’t a home run among Republicans, with many pushing back on a sweeping end to the practice.
Johnson acknowledged that hurdle before the vote and agreed that absentee ballots couldn’t be halted altogether, but lawmakers should find "reasonable restrictions" on the practice.
"I've argued myself you can't ban absentee ballots, or I'm not gonna be able to vote," Johnson told Fox News Digital. "I'm here on Tuesdays in Washington, you know. So, you have to have absentee ballots, but there's got to be restrictions on it."
Senate Democrats could inflict maximum pain as the floor battle rages, too, turning to procedural moves to bog down the process that could derail the timing of Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s, R-Okla., confirmation hearing as the GOP sprints to install him as Trump’s next Department of Homeland Security chief.