The filibuster continues to stand in the way of the GOP agenda, this time with the SAVE Act.
The House has passed it twice, but it’s not coming up for a vote in the Senate because a Democrat filibuster will leave Republicans in need of 60 votes to get it passed.
Congressional Republicans are again calling for an end to the filibuster, the process also known as “cloture.”
GOP-led Senate leadership was eventually able to find eight defecting Democrat votes to end the shutdown, without using their Senate majority to change rules and do away with the filibuster. That political maneuver is a procedural tactic designed to create a leverage point for the minority party through unlimited debate which aims to avoid a vote on the Senate floor.
The filibuster dates back to the first U.S. Senate in 1789. Time limits for debate can be added only through a vote of cloture.
“I think we need to realize that Democrats are done with the cloture vote. If they ever get control, that’s gone,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Indiana) said on American Family Radio Wednesday.
Eliminating the filibuster would allow the majority party – in this case Republicans – to pass legislation with 51 votes. Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate.
It’s the GOP lawmakers who most stand to gain by delivering the Safeguard Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), it would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship -- such as a passport, birth certificate, or REAL ID indicating citizenship -- when registering to vote in federal elections.
The bill prohibits states from processing voter registration applications unless this proof is presented and requires them to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. It also establishes criminal penalties for election officials who register ineligible voters and allows private legal action against those who fail to enforce the proof-of-citizenship requirement.
A majority of Republicans – against Trump’s wishes -- worked hard to honor the filibuster during the shutdown, but some prominent GOP voices echoed Stutzman’s concerns in media coverage then.
"Let's not be schmucks, O.K.? Let's be smart," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) said. "We know the minute Democrats get a majority in the Senate, they're going to get rid of the filibuster...So we better beat them to the punch."
Missouri Republican Josh Hawley said he would vote to abolish the filibuster but for more immediate practical concerns at the time.
"If you're telling me now, I'm going to have to choose between people in my state eating or preserving the arcane rules of the Senate...I'm going to choose people in my state eating," Hawley said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune prefers keeping the filibuster in place and told reporters he had the votes to do it.
"I know where the math is on this issue in the Senate, and it's not happening," he said.
But Stutzman told show host Jenna Ellis he is convinced that modern-day Democrats aren’t concerned with Senate tradition and, as majority party one day, would quickly dispose of any minority leverage point.
“We need to pass the conservative pro-American policies that the American people are expecting and would just think are naturally common sense to pass,” he urged.
Republicans are guaranteed a Senate majority for just one more year before mid-term elections next November.
“Republicans need to realize this is the time to move ahead, and I think that we'll be rewarded for that for good policy,” Stutzman warned.
