Trump’s election bill, the SAVE America Act, has 50 Senate votes but Democrats could block it

WASHINGTON — The SAVE America Act to require proof of citizenship across the country to register to vote and to reform voting laws has passed the 50-vote mark in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill was backed by President Donald Trump and passed the House last week, meaning the Senate’s 60-vote margin is the only thing standing in the way of it becoming law.

The numbers confirm a battle for the bill on the Senate floor as Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., has promised a vote. But he warned last week that it was “not even close” to enough votes to end the filibuster, despite Trump’s calls to do so. If the filibuster remains intact, the legislation will still fail as Democrats are sure to use every tool to block it.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the main sponsor of the bill, is pushing Republicans to use existing laws to force Democrats to engage in “speech” on the Senate floor. The idea is to tire out the opposing Democrats and pass them. But the strategy is a long shot, viewed by most of the former Senate as likely to fail if attempted. The rules make it much easier for a small minority to support the 60-vote threshold than for the majority to override its will and advance a bill with 51 votes.

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine leader facing a competitive bid for re-election this fall, has become the 50th Republican cosponsor of the bill, Lee excitedly announced last week.

“I support the version of the SAVE America Act that just passed the House,” Collins said in a statement. “The law is clear that in this country, only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. In addition, having people provide identification at the time of voting, as they must do before boarding a plane, checking into a hotel, or purchasing an alcoholic beverage, is a simple change that will improve the security of our federal elections and will help give people more confidence in the results.”

He said the bill’s revisions address his earlier concerns by simplifying the citizenship voting rule, instead requiring states to recognize it only when a person is registered to vote.

If it had been a simple majority vote, Collins’ support would have been enough. Vice President JD Vance can break the tie and send it to Trump’s desk to become law. But Collins has made it clear that he does not support filibustering to do that.

“I am against the abolition of the legislative filibuster,” he said. “The filibuster is an important protection of minority rights that requires senators to work together for the common good.”

Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate. Others in the party have not signed the measure, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Murkowski called it an example of “one-size-fits-all orders from Washington” that Republicans often criticize. And McConnell, who has not commented on the bill, has long said he believes states should run their own elections without federal interference.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., has criticized the bill as “Jim Crow 2.0,” designed to free Americans who cannot easily obtain a birth certificate or passport.

“They’re making it so difficult to get any kind of voter ID that more than 20 million legal people, especially poor people and people of color, won’t be able to vote under this law,” Schumer said Sunday on CNN. “We will not allow it to pass the Senate. We are fighting it tooth and nail. It is a terrible proposal that shows the kind of political bias of MAGA.”

Schumer was responding to a question about a poll last August conducted by the Pew Research Center showing that 83% of American adults support “requiring all voters to show a government-issued photo ID to vote.”

In addition to requiring photo ID to vote, the SAVE America Act requires people to show proof of US citizenship in person to register. That includes those voting by mail, who will be required to include a copy of their photo ID to vote.

Thune said Senate Republicans will have a “robust” discussion about how to proceed with the SAVE America Act, while warning that attempting a “talkative filibuster” will be time-consuming and “involve a significant amount of effort, work and cooperation” — all with no guarantee of success.

Trump has repeatedly pushed for the bill’s passage and Lee has framed it as a question mark in the US

“This is an excellent law,” he wrote to X. “Pass it and we save the republic. Don’t pass it and we roll the dice.”