WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans plan to hold a “full and vigorous debate” next week on legislation imposing strict new proof of citizenship requirements to show him they are serious about the bill, even though it does not have enough support to pass.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is planning to hold an open-ended talk marathon on the Senate floor, although it would not officially become a “talk filibuster” as Trump has suggested. Republicans plan to hold out for days or even weeks to put pressure on Democrats.
“I can guarantee we’re going to put Democrats on the record,” Thune said Thursday as he announced plans to debate the bill on the Senate floor, which has already passed the House.
Trump said he would not sign any other legislation until the bill, known as the Securing American Voters Eligibility or the Save America Act, is passed. It faces unanimous opposition from Democrats, meaning the Senate likely won’t approve it unless Republicans change the rules and eliminate the filibuster. Many Republican senators are unwilling to go that far.
Trump has made the bill a priority ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that Republicans need it to win – even if his party can win the presidency and a congressional majority in 2024 without the bill. Federal law already requires voters in national elections to take an oath to identify themselves as U.S. citizens at the risk of prosecution.
The bill would also require voters to provide photo ID when voting, as many states already require.
alternative path
The president’s insistence on the bill and a strong push from the Republican base have put pressure on Thune. The Republican leader has repeatedly said they don’t have enough votes to eliminate the filibuster, which triggers the 60-vote threshold, or even move to the verbal filibuster policy that Trump actively lobbied them to deploy.
Even if they do get the votes, a verbal filibuster is no guarantee of passage. Supporters of this approach say Democrats will eventually tire of speaking out or allowing legislation to pass. But Democrats would also be allowed to propose an unlimited number of amendments on any topic, forcing Republicans to cast hard votes in an election year and further delaying the process.
“We can’t find a piece of legislation in history that was passed in this way,” Thune said this week.
Caught between Trump and Democratic opposition, Republican senators have floated an alternative plan to host the session themselves — denying Democrats a weeklong chance to negotiate. The strategy avoids procedural pitfalls, even if the process could end in a failed vote. Republicans are also expected to consider several amendments that Trump has prioritized, including ending most mail-in voting.
“Republicans are looking forward to this debate,” Thune said.
Hope to appease Trump
Like verbal obstruction, though, the plan does have risks — chiefly that it won’t meet the demands of Trump, who has pushed for passage and threatened to block almost everything else in Congress.
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee said Thursday it was unclear how the bill would be implemented. He worked with Trump to lead the passage of the SAVE America Act and pushed for a verbal filibuster.
“I think he understands that we need to make an aggressive effort here,” Lee said of Trump. “A lot of these things have to be determined in real time as we go about it.”
Lee said Trump’s satisfaction with the process “will depend on whether he thinks we did everything we could.”
The goal is to figure out how to put this into practice and “really get results,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.
“We’re looking at what that means and what we need to be prepared to do,” Britt said.
Democrats prepare to fight back
Democrats unanimously opposed the legislation, arguing it would disenfranchise an estimated 20 million American voters who do not have birth certificates or other readily available documentation.
Sen. Alex Padilla, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, said his camp was organizing to “put our arguments and our facts on the table.”
He said it would be more accurate to call it the “Save Trump’s Butt Act,” because he said the only way Republicans can try to retain power in this November’s election is to make it harder for eligible people to vote.
Padilla said the Save America Act “is not a voter ID bill. It’s a voter suppression bill. It’s a voter purge bill.”