The Senate began what Republicans framed as a high-visibility effort for a voter-registration bill they expect to lose, using the chamber’s floor debate to keep the focus on President Donald Trump’s push for the SAVE America Act ahead of the November midterms.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republicans set the debate in motion Tuesday after the chamber voted 51-48, with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski the only Republican voting against moving forward, according to the Associated Press report. The debate is expected to last for days, potentially extending through the weekend, as Thune tries to manage Trump’s insistence on the issue alongside Democratic opposition.
Thune said the debate would “put Democrats on the record,” adding that “how it ends remains to be seen,” the AP reported. Republicans have said they are proceeding under regular order but outside the customary time limits for debate, laying the groundwork for an extended floor fight even though the bill is not expected to clear the Senate.
Trump has pressed Republicans publicly as he ties other legislative goals to the outcome of the voting measure. In a social media post Tuesday morning, he warned that “I WILL NEVER (EVER!) ENDORSE ANYONE WHO VOTES AGAINST ‘SAVE AMERICA!!!’” The AP report said Trump has urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster or find another workaround to pass the bill, but Thune has said Republicans do not have the votes to do so.
The SAVE Act debate comes after House Republicans passed the legislation earlier this year, only to see the Senate shift to other priorities once it became clear there were not enough votes for passage. The AP report said Trump made clear he was not satisfied and pushed the Senate to act, including by indicating he would not sign other legislation, such as a bipartisan housing bill backed by the White House, until the voting bill is passed.
The proposal would require Americans to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when they register to vote and to show accepted voter identification when casting a ballot, the AP reported. It also includes new penalties for election workers who register voters without proof of citizenship, and it would require states to turn voter data over to the Department of Homeland Security so federal officials could screen for voters who are in the country illegally. The AP report also said Trump wants additional provisions added, including a ban on most mail-in ballots.
Democrats and groups that support voter access have raised objections on both practical and procedural grounds. They argue there is little evidence of noncitizens voting and that the bill would disenfranchise voters, including Republicans, by creating new burdens to prove citizenship, including documentation requirements that they say many people may not be able to provide.
Schumer said Democrats are not opposed to voter identification, but he argued the legislation is about “purging the voter rolls in a massive way, so you never even get the chance to show a voter ID when you showed up to vote,” according to the AP report. Democrats also say the bill would give the federal government a role in removing voters from rolls, a change they say could affect voters who are trying to register or update information.
Republicans have rejected one approach Trump and some of his allies pushed: a “talking filibuster” in which Democrats would be forced to speak for days or weeks to delay passage. The AP report said Thune and Republicans instead decided to take over the floor with their own speeches, while Democrats are expected to respond with procedural moves that could force Republicans to return for votes at all hours.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee, a key Trump ally on the issue, said it is unclear how the strategy will play out, according to the AP report. He said he believes Trump “understands that we need to put in an aggressive effort here,” and that “a lot of that” would have to be determined “in real time as we go about it,” the report said. Lee also said the extent of Trump’s satisfaction would depend on whether Republicans “gave it everything we have,” and he used X on Monday night to rally support, saying that once they are “on this bill,” Republicans “must stay on it until it’s passed into law.”
With Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats opposing the measure and Republicans holding 53 seats, the AP report said Republicans need 60 votes to advance the SAVE Act toward a final vote. The effort is therefore positioned less as a path to enactment than as a prolonged public campaign on a central Trump priority before the midterms—despite the expectation that the debate will ultimately end in defeat.