Thune to schedule Senate vote on SAVE America Act next week

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he will schedule a vote on the SAVE America Act next week, which will likely fail if it requires the 60-vote threshold to pass.

“We’re discussing the manner and process by which it comes to the floor, but it is the intention to have it up next week,” Thune told the Washington Examiner. 

He declined to say whether that bill would require 60 votes to pass, as most Senate legislation does, but reiterated that not enough Senate Republicans support a talking filibuster for the bill to pass without the 60 votes.

The SAVE America Act requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“We don’t have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it,” Thune said earlier Tuesday in a press conference.

The House Freedom Caucus posted on X on Tuesday regarding Thune's comments, "If Thune plans to kill the SAVE America Act by bringing it to the floor at the 60-vote threshold, he isn’t fooling anybody. Americans don’t want performance theater. They want @SenateGOP to actually fight for them by using the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act."

Trump has vowed not to sign virtually any bill until the SAVE America Act is passed and reaches his desk. He told House Republicans on Monday that it is his “No. 1 priority.”

Thune on Tuesday called the decision not to pursue a talking filibuster a matter of Senate “math.”

“I understand the president’s got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do,” Thune said. “For better or worse, I’m the one who has to be a clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here.”