Senate Exits Without Passing Trump’s Voting Bill
WASHINGTON — Senators headed for the exits in the predawn hours Saturday, ending for now a crushing standoff over President Donald Trump’s demands that they stay in session to pass a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill before the summer recess. While lawmakers wrapped up many key priorities in the overnight votes, advancing Trump’s SAVE America Act was not among them, according to AP News.
Instead, Republican senators who had brought the chamber to a standstill spoke to Trump late Friday evening about an alternative plan: They would try again to approve elements of the voting bill as part of a broader GOP budget package to fund the Iran war and replenish the Pentagon when they return to work in September.
“Obviously, with the president at his direction, this is what he wants to do,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the GOP budget committee chairman, flanked by Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, after their phone call with the president.
The SAVE America Act Standoff
The SAVE America Act — short for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility — would require Americans to prove they are citizens when registering to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate, and require valid photo identification before casting ballots. The bill has passed the House multiple times but has stalled in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority but lack the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster.
Trump had poked and prodded Senate Majority Leader John Thune for weeks to pass the legislation, going so far as to insist the Senate abandon its filibuster rules to jam the bill through — something Thune and most senators have no interest in doing. The president had demanded on social media that Thune not allow the Senate to “leave town” until the bill passed, according to USA Today via Yahoo News.
“John’s trying. He’s trying hard. I really believe that. But if he doesn’t get there, it would be unfortunate,” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that posted Friday.
A Nearly 20-Hour Session
During a daylong session that dragged for nearly 20 hours, Thune successfully powered through a lengthy list of other Trump priorities. Senators confirmed the president’s pick of Todd Blanche as attorney general in a 50-49 vote, passed a sweeping Russian sanctions package to aid Ukraine, and approved a continuing resolution to fund the government through the midterms, passing 90-6, according to OANN.
The Republicans also tried to push forward a slimmer voting bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio — the “American Confidence in Elections Act” — that would require voters to show photo identification for federal elections. It failed to advance, 52-46, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster, as The Daily Signal reported.
“Tragically, the Save America vote on the voter ID component failed,” Sen. Mike Lee said after the Senate adjourned. “Not a single Democrat joined us. We’re going to have to keep fighting on that one. We’re not done. We’re just getting started.”
Trump’s Pressure Meets Political Reality
Thune himself has worked to carefully balance the often unusual demands of the president with the political reality of his slim GOP majority. Republicans are down one vote with the prolonged absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former leader, who was released from a rehabilitation center and is recovering at home.
“I think everybody’s, for the most part, on the same page,” Thune said about the trio’s call with Trump, adding that eventually the Senate would have to tackle another budget bill.
But the failure to make progress on the SAVE America Act had erupted as an online crusade for Trump’s allies in Congress. Led by Lee, a growing group of senators was refusing to adjourn for the summer break without passing Trump’s priority voting bill. At dinnertime, Thune gathered all the Republican senators for a meeting as the standoff deepened at the Capitol. Thune encouraged the trio of senators to talk to the president, which they did, before regrouping back at his office.
“We had about a two-hour conference meeting trying to figure out, you know, what we need to do to come to an agreement, to accomplish what the president wanted,” Johnson said. “Then we had discussion with the president, he agrees.”
Lee acknowledged he was disappointed by the outcome but said he understood the political reality of the situation. “We are not in a position right now where we have the wherewithal to pass it,” Lee told reporters at the Capitol.
What’s at Stake
Voting experts have warned the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available. As WhoWhatWhy reported, election experts say there is no realistic path to implement the legislation before the November midterms, and the “quiet period” — a 90-day window before an election tied to the National Voter Registration Act — would be violated by implementation.
“We’re already past the point of implementation of anything like that for this year,” said Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that promotes election integrity.
Meanwhile, seven states have enacted laws in 2025 and 2026 that include key provisions of the SAVE America Act, as The Daily Signal reported. Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have all passed their own versions of the legislation.
Looking Ahead
The Senate is not due to return until Monday, September 14. When lawmakers come back, they will face the postponed budget bill that could include elements of the SAVE America Act, along with the broader challenges of an approaching midterm election season. The dispute echoes a similar fight before last year’s August recess, when Trump pressed Thune to keep senators in Washington to clear a backlog of his nominees.
As Sen. John Cornyn of Texas put it: “You can stay here until the cows come home and it’s not going to change anything. We keep overpromising and underdelivering, which is not a recipe for voter morale or high voter participation in the midterm elections.”
For now, the SAVE America Act’s future remains uncertain — a casualty of the gap between presidential demands and the arithmetic of a closely divided Senate.