Senate Republicans may have left Washington on a high note early Saturday morning, but they left one major item on the table: passing the SAVE America Act.
Its the bill that has dominated President Donald Trumps attention span and garnered heavy criticism against Republicans in the upper chamber for not being able to pass it.
And despite guarantees from some in the party that they would object to leaving until Sept. in order to pass the voter integrity bill, lawmakers suitcases were packed and ready for the airport. Its one of several agenda items that didnt get finished prior to the lawmakers’ vacation, and one that will have to wait until next month. But its biggest proponents appear okay with that outcome.
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“Were not dropping SAVE,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said. “Its a matter of time.”
Time between now and the end of this session of Congress will be an increasingly short commodity to come by.
The Senate returns the third week of September and will be tasked with moving two massive bills dealing with cryptocurrency regulations and money in college sports, both of which didn’t make the cut during the upper chambers last week in town.
Then theyll leave once again for nearly the entire month of October in preparation for midterm elections in early November.
Another priority heavily pushed by Trump and the administration, taking another crack at the party line budget reconciliation process, was detoured, too.
That process is how Republicans hope to pass the SAVE America Act without Democrats getting the chance to block it with the filibuster. Republicans were ready to vote on the $150 billion budget blueprint drafted by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., until Trump intervened over concerns that it would fail.
The push was paused after Johnson, who just took over the Senate Budget Committee, Lee and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., huddled in the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune after speaking with Trump.
Johnson said Trump agreed that the best path forward was to “just work diligently through August into September to do an actually better budget reconciliation bill.”
Republicans want to crank up the defense spending in their budget framework â Johnson said that War Secretary Pete Hegseth made a “very convincing case” to beef up the funding by $350 billion as the war in Iran continues and munitions dwindle.
Still, whether the gamble to incentivize states to take up portions of the SAVE America Act will work remains unknown, given that the Senates rules chief will ultimately decide if the provisions pass muster with reconciliations guardrails.
Taking another shot at reconciliation that doesnt include cost-of-living elements or affordability-minded provisions hasnt been a popular subject among Senate Republicans, especially heading into midterms.
Thune acknowledged that there was an appetite among Republicans to use the legislative tool to muscle throu
