WASHINGTON — Sen. Donald Trump is pressing fellow Republicans to pass the Save America Act, a sweeping bill that would rewrite election laws across the country that President Donald Trump has declared his “No. 1 priority.” Mike Lee is marshalling an online army.
It’s testing the relationship between Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RSD, as he tries to balance the president’s demands and the passions of the GOP base with the unforgiving realities of the Senate.
“Next week I will bring the Save America Act to the floor, and we will have a full and robust debate,” Thune said Thursday on the Senate floor. “I can’t guarantee the outcome of this legislation. I can guarantee you that we’re going to put Democrats on the record, who will be forced to defend their outrageous positions on these issues.”
Early next week, Thune plans to bring up the House-passed version, which is framed as a “message” to start debate in the Senate with 51 votes. GOP leadership aides will engage in extended debate on the Senate bill, giving senators plenty of time to talk about it and forcing Democrats to defend their opposition while considering amendments sought by Republicans. The process could extend into next weekend and beyond, the aide added.
But in the end, it takes 60 votes to cut the debate. As a result, some Republicans say they have no viable path to Trump’s desk.
“There is no strategy,” Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C., told reporters. “It has a 0% (chance) of success.”
“People on my side of the aisle — and people on the right side of the political spectrum — are trying to swing for the fences, and they’re not going to succeed,” said Tillis, who supports the entitlements legislation. “And we’re not going to have more states with more voter ID, which I want. In the process, we’re setting vulnerable Republicans up for a more difficult environment than they already have.”
Some Republicans are frustrated Trump won’t pass the election bill and want him to put the same amount of political capital into moving bills to lower the cost of living ahead of the midterm elections, when his majority in Congress is on the line.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s a common occurrence,” a House Republican in a competitive re-election race told NBC News, speaking openly about his own party’s frustrations on condition of anonymity. “Congress just needs to continue to help affordability with bills like housing and others.”
Why is the bill unlikely to pass?
The math isn’t in the GOP’s favor: They have 51 votes in favor of the bill, but face a 60-vote threshold to pass it. They have no chance of getting there because the Democrats are unanimously and staunchly opposed.
Supporters of the Save America Act floated two methods to get around the 60-vote rule. Both are likely to fail.
The first idea is a “talking filibuster” under current rules, as Lee, R-Utah, called it. Proponents point to no example of this strategy working unless at least 60 senators can cut through debate and allow for final passage, which Democrats have made clear they won’t.
And trying to do so could lead to days or weeks of debate, even overnight, where minority Democrats have a huge advantage: They need a senator to hold the floor and rotate among their 47 members to deliver endlessly long speeches. However, Republicans require 51 of their 53 senators to be on or near the floor at all times and at all hours or days for a “quorum.” Otherwise, a Democrat can adjourn the Senate and end the “talking filibuster.”
“It’s a waste of time,” Tillis told NBC News. “I don’t think it will produce results. And if you look at the odds of success versus the odds of failure, it’s not even close.”
Tillis warned that Democrats could offer unlimited amendments at the simple-majority threshold, some of which could bind politically vulnerable Republican senators.
“If you’re targeting Susan Collins or some of our at-risk people and they’re opposed to something that’s politically problematic, do you really think they’re going to be able to explain?” he said, referring to the Maine Republican, who is one of the GOP’s most vulnerable senators up for re-election this fall.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., acknowledged that pursuing a “talking filibuster” is unlikely to work for the Save America Act.
“It’s impossible to pass it that way,” he said.
A second idea would be to trigger the “nuclear option” and change the Senate’s rules with 51 votes to weaken or nullify the legislative filibuster. Trump has defended the idea.
But they are outnumbered. Only a handful of Republicans, including Johnson and Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., have endorsed the idea.
Thune told reporters there were “nowhere near” enough votes in the Senate to detonate a nuclear bomb.
And many Republicans dig against the filibuster rule change — Tillis and Collins, as well as Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
There are plenty of other senators who support the Save America Act on the merits but aren’t willing to give up the filibuster to pass it. Many Republicans believe the 60-vote hurdle will benefit conservatives in the long run, empowering them to block Democratic priorities the next time they are in the minority.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said getting 60 votes is a top priority, but “that seems difficult.” Attaching the SAVE AMERICA Act to a “must-pass bill” is a fallback, in hopes that Democrats will go along with it, but Democrats can block it as well.
Beyond that, “if we can do a talking filibuster, that would be great,” Scott said. But significantly, Scott also refused to endorse the filibuster rule change.
“I think we have to figure out how to do that,” he said. “I don’t want to make a decision yet.”
GOP warnings
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., supports the Save America Act, but said Trump would be wise to focus narrowly on voter ID provisions, which have much broader support. The bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, which Democrats argue is unnecessary because non-citizen voting is already illegal and rare and would end up denying American citizens additional burdens. And Trump has suggested that Republicans include more controversial items, such as banning transgender people from women’s sports.
“There are dreams, and then there’s reality,” Bacon told NBC News. “Focusing on voter ID is a smart plan. And has a plan to make housing more affordable.”
“They’re still set in 2020,” Bacon said, adding Trump’s relentless focus on the Save America Act.
Trump has not posted since the Senate passed a major, bipartisan bill Thursday to address housing costs and deficits. But he has repeatedly posted about the Save America Act. He appears to be withholding his approval in a key Texas Senate race on the issue and has threatened not to sign any other bill until Congress passes voting restrictions.
Murkowski is the rare Republican senator who opposes the Save America Act, arguing that his party runs afoul of federal mandates for states when it comes to their elections.
They worry Trump is setting himself up to falsely claim the 2026 elections were “rigged” if the Save America Act fails and Republicans lose.
“If you’re suggesting now — it’s March — ‘If my bill doesn’t pass, something I want won’t pass, somehow or other, are elections rigged in the country?’ Why am I worried it might be a trick?” Murkowski said. “Because I think we saw this suggestion in 2020 that if President Trump didn’t win, the election was rigged because people were cheating.”
