Reporter’s Notebook: Senate Republicans lack the votes to pass the Save America Act amid filibuster
“We need to make voting easier and prevent fraud in America,” said Senator Jon Husted, Republican of Ohio.
“The Save America Act is an important bill,” Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, said on Fox News. “So we have to figure out how to pass it.”
A Trump-backed voter ID bill faces GOP resistance as Tillis vows to stop it
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Senate Democrats won’t take the shutdown seriously until flight delays and cancellations start piling up. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
That’s the dilemma facing Senate Republicans — figuring out how to pass it.
The Save America Act is the president’s touchstone Donald Trump Legislative agenda. In fact, the president has warned that he will not sign any other bill into law — except the DHS funding measure — until Congress comes into line with his demands.
Republicans agree on the importance of the Save America Act, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-D. It promises everything but traffic.
“I will bring the Save America Act to the public, and we will have a full and robust debate,” Thune said.
That’s because Republicans can’t break the Democratic filibuster.
“This is one of the worst things we’ve seen in America in a very long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on March 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“The real reason the president wants to pass this bill is to reduce the number of people voting in the November election,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Republicans have only 53 votes in the Senate. So some Republicans are calling for the use of parliamentary ballistics to obliterate the filibuster.
“I would like to eliminate the nuclear filibuster to pass the Save America Act,” said Senator Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas.
Cold War rhetoric permeates this entire discussion. In fact, conservatives appealed Thon To launch a preemptive first strike to end the filibuster before Democrats again win control of the Senate — whether that be this fall or a decade from now.
“It’s really about the only way I can prevent them from using nuclear weapons once they have the majority in the Senate,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin.
Other Republicans want power Democrats To obstruct the old way – until they are exhausted.
“They should keep talking like in the old days,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri. “They can go and talk as much as they want. But sooner or later they will run out of time.”
If everyone finally died down after days or weeks of debate, the Senate wouldn’t need a test vote to break a filibuster — it would need 60 years. This means they can pass the bill with a simple majority: 51.
Now many Republican senators are recalling Frank Capra’s classic 1930s novel, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” This is where Jimmy Stewart plays the role of the idealistic senator who obstructs until he collapses in the Senate chamber.
“They should be out there for hours on end, like a Jimmy Stewart moment,” said Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmidt.
But most Republicans reject Jimmy Stewart’s approach. They are not so much worried about the unlimited discussion during the discussion, but they are worried about the unlimited editing process.
“I think a modern filibuster is going to be a rodeo. I mean it could take two or three weeks. Democrats are going to raise all kinds of problematic votes,” predicted skeptical Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. “I did not ask anyone to describe the project plan to me. This is the number of days. This is how we confront people. We have covered all our political aspects. This is how we succeed in the end.”
But there will be no unlimited editing process. While Thune will allow the discussion to continue for some time (possibly a week or more, Fox is told, and perhaps around the clock), he will maintain “control of the ball.” Thune will not immediately hold a test vote to end the debate, as he would need 60 years. But Thon will immediately block all modifications from both sides.
Like everything on Capitol Hill, it comes down to math. While there will be a lot of talk about the Filibuster and Filibuster Act, there is not enough GOP support across the aisle for dismantling the rules and precedents of the Senate filibuster.
“A lot of us don’t think we should roll back the filibuster because it carries the rights of the majority,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, D-West Virginia. “And one day we’ll be back in the minority.” “It’s a real break here.”
Capito added that there is a “will” to deal with the Save America Act. But the parliamentary machinations needed to blow up the filibuster to pass the bill do not exist.
“There aren’t enough numbers to get this done,” Capito noted.
Trump and other conservatives began to increase pressure on Thune.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Democrats were continuing their push to keep DHS closed because it was “politically expedient.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“I think he’s a wonderful person. I think so,” the president said of the South Dakota Republican on Fox News Radio. “But it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it. He just doesn’t think he can do it. And that’s bad.”
Despite the criticism of Thune, some Republicans are defending him.
“It’s not John Thune that’s killing it,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming. “GOP members are not convinced they can use a verbal filibuster to pass this.” “It will cause tremendous delay on other matters before the U.S. Senate without the positive results of passage of the SAVE Act.”
Significantly, the president did not criticize Thune for his reluctance to end the filibuster to pass the Save America Act. However, Trump routinely called on former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to do so during his first term. The president has often criticized McConnell’s management of the Senate, although the Kentucky Republican has established a new precedent to prevent filibusters by Supreme Court nominees. McConnell’s filibuster gambit echoed the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
But so far, there has been no sharp criticism of Thune.
However, some Republicans believe Senate Magic Can Save America Act.
“I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out of a hat before,” Loomis said. “And I hope there’s a rabbit in his hat on this one.”
The Senate is holding only a test vote to begin debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon. This requires a simple majority. It is possible Vice President J.D. Vance You may need to break a tie to start debate on the bill.
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Vice President J.D. Vance talks on his phone as he walks to the West Wing of the White House, on March 6, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
But the Senate does not have the votes to undermine precedent, as McConnell did with the Supreme Court, to pass the Save America Act, nor do they have the votes to implement a full-fledged “verbal obstruction,” exceeding the need for 60 years.
Let us consider the firestorm that may descend on Senate Republicans from their base if the Republican Party fails to pass the Save America Act. Trump has been silent so far, but there could be recriminations from him as well.
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