Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S., on Tuesday crushed pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to change Senate filibuster rules to speed passage of a controversial voter identification bill.
The SAVE America Act, introduced in January, would require voters to prove their citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and require them to submit a specific form of photo identification to vote. The bill is scheduled to be voted on in the House this week, but faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have vowed to use the filibuster to block it, saying it could disenfranchise millions of Americans. Filibuster rules require 60 votes for a bill to pass in the Senate.
Supporters of the voter ID bill are calling for changes to Congressional rules.
“There’s no vote to override the filibuster, there’s nothing even close to it,” Thune said at a press conference after Tuesday’s Senate Republican conference. “So the idea keeps coming out, but there’s something about it. … It doesn’t have a future.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is leading the bill’s push in the Senate, is calling for an end to the so-called “zombie filibuster” and reinstatement of an old-style rule that requires opposing lawmakers to physically sit in the chamber to discuss legislation in order to delay it.
“Remember, a speaking filibuster is best understood as a filibuster. Historically, senators have had to speak in order to filibuster. You can’t get the benefits of a filibuster without doing the filibuster’s job. That means speaking,” Lee said in a video posted to X on Tuesday.
The “talking” filibuster, made famous by the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” hasn’t been used regularly since Senate rules changed in the 1970s, and some supporters of the bill are hesitant to return to the old method.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has said he supports the voter ID bill, told reporters on Tuesday that “eliminating the filibuster would lead to more acrimony, it would lead to a rapid shift from right to left, and I don’t think it’s good for the country.” “The default position is freedom, and I think most laws take away your freedom. So I’m not really in favor of making it easier to pass laws.”
Filibuster reform aside, the voter ID proposal is controversial and faces an uncertain fate in both chambers after President Trump last week called for the federal government to take control of elections from the states.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a centrist Republican, said on Tuesday’s X that she does not support the bill.
“Not only does the U.S. Constitution specifically give states the power to regulate the ‘when, where, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington, D.C., is unlikely to work in a place like Alaska,” Murkowski said.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Lee and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) last year, did not include voter ID requirements and passed the House in April, with four Democrats joining Republicans in support.
One such Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, said Monday that the new bill is “not even close to the same” as the bill he previously supported.
“One is having to prove citizenship to register to vote. The other is like showing your ID at the ballot box. That’s not the important difference,” Golden said. “It feels like they’re going to win zero seats in the Senate…They’re just sending a message to themselves.”
