Republican Senate leaders are attempting to use the budget reconciliation process to force their warmongering and President Trump’s SAVE Act through Congress without any Democratic votes.
“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely. More funding will mean they can complete the task assigned and keep America safe – which is money well spent,” Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X Wednesday morning, referring to the lengthy process in which only 51 votes are needed to pass budget-related legislation. “During President Trump’s second term, the murder rate marked the largest single-year drop in recorded history and illegal border crossings are at the lowest level since the 1970’s. Imagine what will happen when we fully invest in President Trump’s public safety mission. I also think we have many opportunities to improve voter integrity through reconciliation.”
However, many on the right do not agree that reconciliation is a viable way to pass the SAVE Act, which would institute extreme voter ID requirements only months before the midterm elections.
“It’s hard to imagine how the SAVE America Act could be passed through reconciliation,” Senator Mike Lee, a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act, wrote on X Tuesday. “And by ‘hard’ I mean ‘essentially impossible.’”
“It can’t pass through budget reconciliation because it’s a policy, it is not budgetary,” Lee continued in a video post Tuesday evening. “Do not be fooled into thinking that we can set down the SAVE Act and just pick it up on budget reconciliation. That’s not going to work.”
There are many things the Senate could pass with a simple majority using the procedure known as “budget reconciliation”
The SAVE America Act is *not* one of them
So we need to keep debating it as we have been—until it passes pic.twitter.com/rAccjTXPxb— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 24, 2026
Lee is not alone among Republicans in Congress, and other members don’t see the SAVE Act passing through the reconciliation process. Leading Democrats confirmed as such Wednesday on the Senate floor.
“If you want to shove the SAVE Act into reconciliation, then have at it. We’re going to fight you tooth and nail throughout the reconciliation process, every step of the way,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “You’re going to find it very difficult to jam massive changes to the American election system … by using a process that was never designed for that purpose.”
Graham also faces criticism for the legislation’s hawkish priorities.
“Just to recap — we couldn’t have a second budget reconciliation bill focused on family affordability because it would cost too much and prove too difficult to get across the finish line,” Patrick T. Brown of the Ethics and Public Policy Center wrote on X Wednesday. “But we *can* have one so long as it focuses on spending $200b on a war we elected to start.”
