51-48: Senate Now Kicking Off Week-Long Debate on SAVE America Act

It's on. President Trump's #1 legislative priority of the year is now moving - it hasn't moved much, but it's moving.

On Tuesday, by a mostly party-line vote, the United States Senate voted to begin floor debate on the SAVE America Act, which would require (among other things) proof of citizenship to register to vote, and also present a valid government-issued ID to cast a vote. The motion to begin debate passed 51 to 48.

The Senate voted Tuesday to begin a long and contentious debate over the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to show documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID when casting a ballot.
President Trump has called the measure his No. 1 legislative priority.
The Senate voted 51-48 to proceed to the bill, advancing the measure despite the opposition of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who said last week he would vote against proceeding to the bill, missed the vote. Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who has told GOP colleagues that he doesn’t support the bill, voted to begin debate as a courtesy to the Senate Republican leadership.

As an Alaskan, let me just interject that Princess Lisa Murkowski's "No" vote is neither unusual nor surprising for her.

Note that this vote just brings the bill to the floor for debate. It's still a long ways from passing.

The vote sets the stage for Trump’s Senate allies to hold an extensive debate over the next week in an effort to build political momentum for the House-passed legislation, which Trump says will be critical to Republicans keeping control of Congress in the midterm election.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a leading proponent of the bill, has argued that a prolonged floor debate on the measure could build political support for the bill, similar to how senators mustered support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act during a two-month Senate floor debate.

We can hope, but that seems unlikely, as polarized as the Senate and, indeed, the entire Congress is right now. The Democrats are, even now, continuing to demagogue this bill with some of the most egregious horse squeeze that I've ever seen, and I've been watching politics since the Carter administration.

Leavitt: The SAVE America Act Does Not Prohibit Anyone From Voting Except Illegal Aliens

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) offered one piece of justification for not seeking to force a talking filibuster:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has declined to force Democrats to wage a talking filibuster, which would require continuous floor debate, to block the legislation. But he instead will keep the measure on the floor through the weekend and into next week to highlight Democratic opposition to its voting reforms.
“The talking filibuster has different sets of rules that apply. There are no rules of germaneness on amendments,” he said.

If I'm reading that correctly, a talking debate would allow Democrats to use the SAVE America Act as a dartboard, to casually toss whatever poison pill amendments at the bill that they please, in the hope of making the whole thing tiresome and unpalatable to either side - or just to try to run out the clock. Democrats are still running with the argument that women and minorities aren't smart enough to find proof of citizenship or to obtain an ID, which seems a perfectly ridiculous argument, but that's what they are running with. The great irony with that argument is that, in the case of many of their constituents, they may well be right.

This debate is expected to continue into next week. Stay tuned, we will be updating you as things develop.

Editor's Note: The headline of this article was updated post-publication for clarity.

Editor's Note: The Democrats are doing everything in their power to undermine the integrity of our elections.

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