The Senate on Thursday night failed to advance an amendment that would have attached the SAVE America Act to a nearly $70 billion immigration enforcement funding package, after four Senate Republicans joined Democrats to block it. The vote required 60 supporters and fell short, ending the latest Republican attempt to move the bill through the chamber.
Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis broke ranks and voted with all Democrats to thwart the move. It was the second attempt by Republicans to attach the SAVE America Act to their budget reconciliation package, and this one was aimed at funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The failed amendment was offered by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has pressed the measure as part of President Donald Trump’s marquee voter ID and election integrity legislation. Graham argued that Democrats opposed voter ID because, as he put it, “there’s no other reason to say you don’t have to have an ID. It just makes cheating easier.” He also asked, “Who wants a noncitizen voting in our election if you’re against that, that makes me wonder.”
Graham also folded broader culture-war arguments into his case, saying that “biological males playing girls sports [is] not good for anybody, and a minor should not be allowed to transition their sex,” and adding that “that’s the biggest change you can make in your entire life. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that as a minor.”
The vote echoed a setback from just over a month ago, when Sen. Alex Padilla said a similar proposal was defeated on a bipartisan basis. That matters because the Republican strategy here was not to move the SAVE America Act on its own, but to tuck it into a must-pass funding vehicle and rely on party discipline to carry it over the line.
That did not happen. Unanimous Democratic opposition and the defections of four Republicans left Graham without the 60 votes needed, and the result underscored how little room there is for the measure in the Senate even when Republicans try to move it inside a larger package. Unless GOP leaders find a different path or pick up additional support, the SAVE America Act is likely to keep running into the same wall.
