Senate Republicans reached a deal Friday night to defer action on much of the SAVE America Act until after the August recess, settling a weeks-long fight that had divided the GOP conference. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, President Trump, and conservative senators Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Rick Scott agreed to postpone a vote on a budget resolution and delay most of the voter ID legislation until September, according to The Hill.
The compromise represents a retreat from Trump’s demand that the Senate skip its five-week recess entirely to pass the full SAVE America Act. Conservative senators had called for canceling the break, with over 20 Republicans expressing support for that position, but Johnson, Lee, and Scott acknowledged they lacked the votes to advance the complete bill in the near term.
Under the deal, Senate Republicans will vote immediately on a narrower component: a photo ID requirement for federal elections sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio). That measure represents roughly half of the SAVE America Act’s provisions. Lee said conservatives hope the vote will put Democrats on the record regarding voter ID requirements, despite Democrats having previously blocked a similar Husted amendment in March on a 53-47 vote.
The SAVE America Act (officially the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) would require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo identification at the polls. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the bill would require forms such as passports, birth certificates paired with government-issued photo ID, or military identification cards with service records.
The Senate has voted five times on the SAVE America Act or major elements of it since spring, but has failed each time to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to break a Democratic filibuster. Democrats have repeatedly blocked the measure, citing concerns about voter access. Trump had repeatedly demanded that Thune keep the Senate in session through the recess to force a vote, but Thune has said Republicans do not have the votes to abolish the filibuster to pass election reform legislation without Democratic support.
Johnson said the conference decided during a two-hour meeting that the budget resolution faced uncertain passage and that more time was needed to produce a stronger bill. “There was a concern whether or not it could actually pass, the budget resolution, tonight,” Johnson said, noting that some colleagues wanted substantially more Pentagon funding than the $73 billion proposed in the House-passed resolution.
Lee indicated he would not force a politically sensitive adjournment resolution to block the recess, expressing satisfaction with the compromise to vote on the Husted photo ID measure. “We’re not in a position right now where we have the wherewithal to pass it right now,” Lee said of the full SAVE America Act, “but we are going to vote on a handful of things, including the Husted measure with photo ID, which is about half of what the SAVE America Act is.”
Johnson said Trump signed off on the plan to wrap up Senate business before the August recess. The conservative leaders also said they remained “hopeful” about finding a way to vote soon on a continuing resolution to fund the government through December 11 and to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general before senators depart for the five-week break.
Sources
- The Hill — Senate Republicans’ deal to defer SAVE America Act and budget resolution vote until after August recess, with details on the compromise and conservative senators’ role
- Bipartisan Policy Center — Comprehensive explanation of SAVE America Act provisions, including documentary proof of citizenship and photo ID requirements
