SAVE America Act Hits Another Snag as Senate Delays After Recess

It’s getting really hard to watch this one play out.

President Trump has called the SAVE America Act his number one legislative priority. The House passed it back in February. And yet here we are in mid-April, and the Senate still can’t get it across the finish line.

The bill — which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a government-issued photo ID at the ballot box — was supposed to be taken back up after the two-week spring recess. But when lawmakers returned this week, Sen. Mike Lee confirmed it had been pushed aside again in favor of other priorities.

Lee posted this update shortly after the Senate reconvened:

Delayed again. DHS funding, War Powers Act issues — apparently all of it jumped the line ahead of election integrity.

And the idea of sneaking it through budget reconciliation — which only requires 50 votes — has already been shot down by conservatives in both chambers.

The Hill laid out how that path collapsed:

Conservatives in both chambers are sharply shooting down the idea of trying to advance key provisions of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act through the budget reconciliation process, arguing the strategy has little chance of succeeding.

Senate Republicans have been searching for an off-ramp to end the intense pressure campaign from President Trump and his allies to pass the GOP voting requirements bill, which they’ve been debating on the floor for two weeks even as unified Democratic opposition leaves it short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.

But a proposal to pass pieces of the bill, which mandates voter IDs and proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, via the same partisan process they used for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year was met with swift and sharp opposition from some of the most vocal proponents of the legislation.

So reconciliation won’t work. The filibuster is blocking a straight vote. And now the Senate is getting sidetracked by other issues.

The frustrating part? The votes are reportedly there. Rep. Chip Roy recently confirmed the Senate has 50 votes to pass the SAVE America Act — if it ever gets to a final vote:

Fifty votes. That’s enough — if leadership would just nuke the filibuster or find a way around it.

According to Fox News, Sen. Lee even urged President Trump before the recess to invoke a rare constitutional power to force Congress back into session early — a move that has reportedly only been used once in the modern era, by President Harry Truman back in 1948.

Lee, a sponsor of the SAVE Act, argued that requiring proof of citizenship to vote is a vital enough reason for lawmakers to cut their vacation short and get back to work.

The constitutional power in question would allow the president to convene one or both chambers of Congress in extraordinary circumstances — a power that has rarely been exercised in American history.

The SAVE America Act would require states to verify voter rolls using federal databases, including Department of Homeland Security systems, and impose penalties on election officials who fail to properly verify documentation. It would also place restrictions on mail-in and online voter registration systems.

To his credit, Lee isn’t giving up. He’s reportedly calling for the Senate to either continue a talking filibuster or eliminate it entirely to get this bill across the finish line:

The question now is whether Senate leadership has the will to match the urgency that voters and President Trump are demanding.

What’s your view?