🚨 BREAKING: Senate Leader John Thune says there are ACTIVE discussions to bring the SAVE America Act to a talking filibuster and floor vote
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 25, 2026
If successful, it can PASS with 50 votes + JD Vance
"We're having conversations about it, but it's not a unified position among… pic.twitter.com/CdPAh8wA3j
The Republican-controlled Senate passed a resolution on Feb. 12 so that Sen. Thom Tillis could have a dog parade but cannot find time to pass critical voting legislation.
Tillis’ resolution, which he submitted to the Senate earlier this month, allowed the “use of the atrium in the Philip A. Hart Senate office building for a Bipawtisan Doggi Gras Pawrade” on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The resolution passed by unanimous consent.
Truly incredible what the Senate will find time to do when it’s motivated. https://t.co/xgjM79TLdO
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 26, 2026
Senate Republicans are seemingly unmotivated to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.
The SAVE America Act would require both documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot in federal elections. The legislation passed the House, but is stalling in the Senate, despite 50 Republican senators who co-sponsor or support the SAVE America Act. Approximately “80 percent of Americans (including a significant number of Democrats) … support citizenship and ID requirements,” as pointed out by The Federalist’s Matt Kittle.
Majority Leader Thune: “We want to get to the SAVE Act. The process in which we consider it is still an open question, but clearly not a unified position among Republicans in the Senate.” pic.twitter.com/fcb9hEXovE
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 26, 2026
But Thune claims a talking filibuster is a nonstarter for now.
“If we were to go down that path, it’s very hard to pivot and get back to open up the government,” Thune said, according to The Hill. “That’s harder to do once you’re in the throes of a talking filibuster.”
“The talking filibuster issue is on which there is not certainly a unified Republican Conference and there would have to be. If you go down that path, you’re talking about the need to table what are going to be numerous amendments and an ability to keep 50 Republicans unified pretty much on every single vote,” he continued. “There just isn’t the support for doing that at this point.”
While Thune says the SAVE America Act will still come up for a vote, Democrats will vote it down with ease by voting against a cloture motion to advance the measure. As Roy explained in his letter, “Under current practice, [Thune] would call it up, debate it for a while, and proceed to a 60-vote cloture vote to ‘shut off debate.’ It would fail, Republicans would shrug and say ‘we tried, we need to elect more Republicans.’”
As Roy said, “If Republicans stick together, and the minority exhaust their opportunities to speak in opposition or give up, a final vote on passage of the bill occurs automatically at a majority threshold.”
If Republicans can’t “stick together” to pass the single most important piece of election legislation in decades, at least their voters can sleep easy at night knowing their senators were able to “stick together” to approve a dog parade.
