Tipsheet

GOP Will Bring SAVE Act to the Floor to 'Put Democrats on the Record' on Voter ID

Joseph Chalfant
Joseph Chalfant  |  March 10, 2026 5:45 PM

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has announced that he will bring the SAVE America Act to the floor of the Senate, despite claiming that he does not have the votes to pass the legislation with or without utilizing the talking filibuster. Because he lacks the votes to accomplish passing the bill with the talking filibuster, he will instead bring it to the floor with a 60-vote threshold.

Thune claims that he wants to use the forced vote as an opportunity to show “whether or not they think that non-citizens should vote in American elections.” He has acknowledged that holdouts in the GOP have blocked the ability to pass the bill by forcing Democrats to debate the issue on the floor with the talking filibuster. President Trump revealed on Monday that 4 to 5 Republican senators are unwilling to pass the bill.

“I think it’s important that everybody understand that this really is about—this is about the votes, it’s about the math,” Thune said in a press conference.

The move is part of an evolving strategy to “put Democrats on the record” on the issue of voter ID after multiple polls have shown that the issue is wildly popular with even left-leaning voters.

The idea has received blowback from staunch America First politicians, who say that the effort would be “useless” and a failure to pass the SAVE Act would be a “humiliating failure.”