Thune ready to move SAVE Act forward in Senate

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected Tuesday to take steps to move forward for the long haul to attempt to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

For weeks, Mr. Trump has urged the South Dakota Republican and the rest of the GOP conference in the upper chamber, to pass the legislation, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in elections and showing an ID to cast a ballot.

He has pledged to not sign any legislation until the Senate approves the bill.

Mr. Thune will commence with procedural tactics, including filling the amendment tree to block Democrats from filing extraneous amendments on to the legislation.

This will happen soon, as early as Tuesday, with a vote that requires only a simple majority to bring the SAVE Act to the floor. Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, is expected to oppose the move, but Mr. Thune will have the votes to proceed.

Lawmakers predict that the floor debates could last at least two weeks, and Democrats may force a vote on at least one Iran war powers resolution during this period.

There are two ways to break a filibuster. The first is the majority leader files cloture and there are 30 hours of debate, and then 60 votes, ends the filibuster.

The second way, historically, is the majority leader brings the bill to the floor without filing cloture and lawmakers debate until exhaustion or until one side does not have a speaker available.

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Mr. Thune is expected not to file cloture on Tuesday.

Republicans only need a simple majority to begin debate on the GOP legislation, but they can just lose three of their own members to get a 50-50 tie that Vice President J.D. Vance can break in their favor.

Opponents of the legislation say it will be blocked when the Senate moves to end debate, something that will require 60 votes.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.