Thune Has Tried Nothing To Pass The SAVE Act And He’s All Out Of Ideas

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday “We don’t have the votes to get rid of the filibuster” as his defense for why he won’t get the SAVE America Act passed. Lucky for Thune, he doesn’t need to “get rid of the filibuster” to pass the SAVE America Act, but he already knows that — he just doesn’t want to pass the legislation at all.

The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act by requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot. While noncitizen voting is already illegal, the only thing standing between a noncitizen and our free and fair elections is a tiny square box on the federal registration form requiring applicants to attest under penalty of perjury they are a citizen.

The House has already passed the legislation, and it’s wildly popular amongst Republicans, Democrats, and even Independents. Approximately “80 percent of Americans (including a significant number of Democrats) … support citizenship and ID requirements,” as pointed out by The Federalist’s Matt Kittle.

Despite the popularity and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, Thune has already surrendered.

“We don’t have the votes to get rid of the filibuster. We had a very spirited debate,” Thune said. “I made more speeches on the floor in support of the SAVE Act than any other senator.”

But as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said in a post on X: “This is completely false and he knows it.”

Thune is not powerless, despite his insistence that he’s done all he can do. Senate Republicans do not need to nuke the filibuster to get this legislation passed, as Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, explained in a letter first obtained by The Federalist.

Roy explained that so long as all Senate Republicans who have either sponsored or co-sponsored the bill show up and present a live quorum, Democrats would be forced under existing rules to talk non-stop to delay a vote at just 51 votes rather than reach the 60-threshold filibuster.

“The commonly accepted 60-vote ‘filibuster’ threshold to ‘shut off debate’ is not the ONLY way to force a vote in the Senate – the majority can force opposing Senators to speak,” Roy said.

Roy said Thune could “proceed to the SAVE America Act with a simple majority vote … as soon as he chooses. Under current practice, he would call it up, debate it for a while, and proceed to a 60-vote cloture vote to ‘shut off debate.’ It would fail, Republicans would shrug and say ‘we tried, we need to elect more Republicans.’”

But, “If Republicans stick together, and the minority exhaust their opportunities to speak in opposition or give up, a final vote on passage of the bill occurs automatically at a majority threshold.” Roy added that in order for this method to work, Republicans would need to be “disciplined” and table each amendment and enforce a “2-speech rule” in order to force the needed vote on the legislation.

All of that done without nuking the filibuster.

But as The Federalist co-founder and CEO Sean Davis said on X: “John Thune has tried nothing and he’s all out of ideas.”

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Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2