Four Senate Republicans joined Democrats on Thursday night to block another effort to advance President Donald Trump’s Save Act, sinking an amendment that would have attached the voter ID bill to a nearly $70 billion budget reconciliation package. The move fell short of the 60 votes needed on the Senate floor.
The senators who broke ranks were Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis. Their votes left the amendment from Sen. Lindsey Graham short of the margin he needed, despite Republicans controlling the push to add the measure to a spending bill aimed at funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
It was the second attempt by Republicans to link the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility America Act to reconciliation, months after they launched a quasi-floor takeover to debate the bill. The failure matters because reconciliation can sometimes move major legislation around a filibuster, but this effort still needed broad GOP buy-in and did not get it.
Graham tried to turn the debate into a broader argument over elections and social issues. He told senators that rejecting voter ID made cheating easier, asked who would want a noncitizen voting in U.S. elections, and also tied the fight to transgender sports and minors transitioning. Alex Padilla said just over a month ago a similar proposal was defeated on a bipartisan basis, underscoring that the resistance has not eased.
The blocked amendment leaves the Save Act where it has been before: backed by Republicans, opposed by all Democrats, and still unable to reach 60 votes in the Senate. Even if Majority Leader John Thune were to try a long-sought talking filibuster, the math inside the chamber points the same way unless Republicans can hold their own side together.
