Thune Throws Cold Water on Procedural Maneuvers for Voter ID Bill After Trump Threatens All Other Legislation

President Trump’s threat to ignore all other legislation until his voter identification bill passes is failing to move the needle in the Senate. Several GOP senators say that the procedural maneuvers needed in order to pass the bill would essentially hand Democrats control of the Senate floor, potentially for months. The majority leader, Senator John Thune, said as much on Monday afternoon. Speaking to reporters just off the Senate floor, Mr. Thune did not explicitly rule out a “talking filibuster,” but he did highlight the many risks associated with such a move. “Having studied it — researched it pretty thoroughly — you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds, because I think what has been promised out there is that it would actually get an outcome, and I find it very hard to see that,” Mr. Thune said. The “talking filibuster” option, which has been pushed by conservative lawmakers for months, would force senators opposed to the voter ID bill — the SAVE America Act — to hold the floor by speaking for as long as they can. The goal would be to exhaust Democrats and eventually pass the bill by a simple majority vote.The problem, however, is that the Democrats would have immense power during the process. They could offer an unlimited number of amendments to the bill, many of which could be debated with the help of just four Republican senators voting against initial measures to quash an amendment. There would then be unlimited debate on any amendment that gets through that hurdle. In the end, the entire process could take months, meaning that the Senate’s only legislative achievement for the remainder of this congressional session would be the SAVE America Act. “There were a couple of different occasions where the Democrats contemplated doing this,” Mr. Thune said, referring to the talking filibuster. “They opted against it because they examined it in the same way we’re examining it.”Mr. Thune’s comments came one day after Mr. Trump threatened to not sign a single piece of legislation — except for a bill to re-open the Department of Homeland Security — until the SAVE America Act comes to his desk. Mr. Thune brushed that threat off, saying reporters should ask the president about those comments and that he hopes “at the end of the day … we can move things across the floor and actually put legislation on his desk that he’ll find his way to sign.”The original version of the SAVE America Act — then called just the SAVE Act — was simply a requirement that Americans prove their citizenship when registering to vote, though an identification requirement for voting was later added. Mr. Trump is now demanding that the Senate add on three new provisions — a ban on mail voting except for certain circumstances, making it illegal to perform transgender surgeries on or prescribe hormones to minors, and a new law requiring that transgender individuals play sports in leagues which align with their biological sex. One retiring lawmaker, Senator Thom Tillis, tells the New York Sun that he believes the talking filibuster is not only unworkable, but it would be hypocritical for the GOP to take that step. “You gotta reconcile for me how, three years ago, we were lambasting Democrats for potentially nuking the filibuster to nationalize elections,” Mr. Tillis said. “Now we’re doing the same thing?”Mr. Thune has been the target of many conservative commentators’ ire for months, though Mr. Tillis says that the majority leader is simply the face of a larger opposition to the talking filibuster within the Senate Republican conference. “John Thune has the toughest job in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Tillis said with a smile. “He, quite honestly, is taking on a lot for the members.”Mr. Thune’s own Senate partner from South Dakota, Senator Mike Rounds, offered a similar assessment of how the talking filibuster would play out. “I think a talking filibuster is a lot more challenging than some people think,”Mr. Rounds told reporters. Senator John Kennedy says his Republican colleagues ought to go a different route altogether. He says the SAVE America Act should be put into what is known as a budget reconciliation package, which can pass the Senate with a simple majority vote. Doing so, however, could also take weeks or months, though the Senate would be able to do other business while that process plays out, unlike with the talking filibuster. In order for the bill to be included in a larger reconciliation package, however, the Senate Parliamentarian would have to rule on the question of whether or not the SAVE America Act itself complies with what is known as the “Byrd Rule.” Determining whether or not reconciliation provisions comply with that rule — which requires that all parts of the bill have substantial impacts on federal spending or revenues — is called a “Byrdbath.”“I’ve been around here [for] ten years. I’ve seen things survive a Byrdbath that I didn’t think had a chance and I have seen things not survive a Byrdbath that I thought were slam dunks,” Mr. Kennedy told reporters. “The way you get something through a Byrdbath is to do your homework, do your research, look for precedents, make your case that it impacts spending.”“I’m not prepared to concede that it won’t survive a Byrdbath,” he said. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is still pushing for the talking filibuster to be used, even if it forces all other pieces of legislation to the side.“If it takes you six months, I’m for not approving anything,” Mr. Trump said in a speech to House Republicans in Florida on Monday. “I don’t think we should approve anything until this is approved.”

Thune Throws Cold Water on Procedural Maneuvers for Voter ID Bill After Trump Threatens All Other Legislation

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