Thune ready to move SAVE Act forward in Senate

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to take steps Tuesday to move forward in the long term to try to pass the Save America Voters Eligibility Act (SAVE).

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 the presentation of identification to vote.

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

Mr. Thune will begin with procedural tactics, including packing the amendment tree to prevent Democrats from filing unnecessary amendments to the legislation.

That will happen soon, as early as Tuesday, with a vote that requires only a simple majority for the SAVE Act to pass. Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, is expected to oppose the move, but Mr. Thune will have the votes necessary to proceed.

Lawmakers anticipate the debates could last at least two weeks, and Democrats could force a vote on at least one Iran war powers resolution during that time.

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

The second way, historically, is for the majority leader to introduce the bill without filing cloture and for lawmakers to debate until exhaustion or until one side no longer has a speaker available.

Mr. Thune is not expected to file the closing on Tuesday.

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

Opponents of the bill say it will be blocked when the Senate ends debate, which will require 60 votes.