The SAVE Act: Why Are Senate Republicans Dithering?
In almost all midterm congressional elections, the President’s party loses seats in the House of Representatives. The only exceptions occurred in 1902, 1934, 1998, and 2002. This obviously means the razor thin Republican House majority — and thus the GOP’s governing trifecta — will be in considerable peril next November. This being the case, common sense dictates that certain crucial bills should be prioritized by Congress and sent to President Trump’s desk for signature post haste. Considering the insecure and chaotic manner in which federal elections are conducted in blue states, the SAVE Act clearly falls into the must pass category. Yet the Republican leadership in the Senate continues to vacillate.
They should follow the example of the Republican House leadership, who seem to understand how important it is to get an election integrity bill across the finish line. They have twice passed the SAVE Act, which would require states to obtain documentary proof of citizenship that complies with the REAL ID Act of 2005 before registering a person to vote in a federal election. Despite historically attenuated GOP majorities, the House passed the bill during the 118th Congress but the Democrats who controlled the Senate at that time left it for dead. The House GOP passed it again during the current (119th) Congress expecting the Republicans, who now hold a majority in the Senate to take it up, yet still it languishes in committee.
It’s past time for Republicans like Grandstand Rand and his ilk to get serious about election integrity.
Why the inertia? The excuse most commonly given by weak-kneed Republican Senators involves their reluctance to “nuke” the legislative filibuster. It is true that this should not be done without considerable circumspection, but this hoary relic of the 18th century is moribund. The Democrats have pledged to eliminate it in order to pass several pieces of controversial legislation and would have done so already but for the opposition of former Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Sooner or later, the Democrats will regain control of the Senate and they will consign the filibuster to history shortly thereafter. As early as 2020, the far left Brennan Center for Justice provided them with a pretext for doing so:
The filibuster was designed and used for decades to thwart civil rights legislation. In recent years, its use and abuse has only grown … The struggle for democracy and racial justice must be at the heart of our politics. Chief among these goals must be repair of our democratic systems, which, this pandemic has revealed, are so evidently in need of renewal. Millions of Americans are calling for major reforms to ensure our democracy continues to function — overhauling our elections, creating stricter ethics rules for elected and appointed officials, limiting the poisonous influence of money in politics, and ensuring that voters choose their elected officials.
You will note that, despite the Democrat caterwauling to which the public was subjected after President Trump’s remarks about nationalizing elections, one of the above justifications for killing the filibuster involved “overhauling our elections.” This recommendation eventually produced the “For the People Act of 2021.” It was the first bill (H.R.1) introduced by the Democrats during the 117th Congress and would have literally imposed a federal takeover of state-run elections. In other words, the Democrats themselves attempted to “nationalize” elections and were prepared to nuke the filibuster to get it done but were thwarted by Senators Manchin and Sinema. As the Heritage Foundation described it at the time.
H.R.1 would federalize and micromanage the election process administered by the states, imposing unnecessary, unwise, and unconstitutional mandates on the states … It would implement nationwide the worst changes in election rules that occurred during the 2020 election and go even further in eroding and eliminating basic security protocols that states have in place. The bill would interfere with the ability of states and their citizens to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls, to secure the fairness and integrity of elections, to participate and speak freely in the political process.
All of which brings us back to the Republicans in the Senate. They have a genuine opportunity to pass legislation that will bolster election integrity and prevent most non-citizens from voting. They also have ample evidence that the filibuster will not prevent the Democrats from foisting the “For the People Act” on the country when they return to power. And, they will return to power sooner or later. While it’s tempting to blame Senate Majority Leader John Thune for failing to push the SAVE Act, or even Mitch McConnell for keeping the bill bottled in the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, there are still a number of GOP Senators who oppose the legislation based on their “principles.” Their names are all too familiar:
Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). What the Hell is wrong with these people? The latest version of this bill is the SAVE America Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and its most important difference from the SAVE Act is that, in addition to providing proof of ID to register, it requires that voters provide a photo ID when they actually cast a ballot. This requirement is supported by a huge majority of voters, including Republican, Democrats, and Independents. It’s past time for Republicans like Grandstand Rand and his ilk to get serious about election integrity.
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