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Four Senate Republicans broke ranks to kill another effort to pass President Donald Trump’s marquee voter ID and election integrity legislation as the GOP marches to fund immigration enforcement.
Just like last time, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tills, R-N.C., joined all Democrats to thwart the move.
It’s the second attempt by Republicans to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to their budget reconciliation package, and the second time that they’ve failed to get the legislation across the line months after launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the bill.
DOZEN GOP REBELS FAIL TO PERMANENTLY KILL TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined Senate Democrats to kill a late-night attempt to attach the SAVE America Act to the GOP’s immigration enforcement funding plan. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Photo by Li Ying/Xinhua via Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Trying to attach the bill to the nearly $70 billion budget reconciliation package geared toward funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol meant that the amendment from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., needed at least 60 votes to pass.
That threshold again proved too high a bar on Thursday night.
And it’s a result that further solidified the political reality in the upper chamber that the SAVE America Act has little chance of passing, given the unanimous Democratic resistance and lack of total buy-in among the Senate GOP, even if Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., launched the long sought after talking filibuster.
REPUBLICANS FAIL TO ATTACH SAVE AMERICA ACT TO PARTY-LINE FUNDING PACKAGE
Still, Graham challenged Democrats to bat down the amendment, accusing them of being “probably into cheating” in elections for not supporting voter ID.
“There’s no other reason to say you don’t have to have an ID. It just makes cheating easier,” Graham said. “Who wants a noncitizen voting in our election if you’re against that, that makes me wonder.”
“And biological males playing girls sports [is] not good for anybody, and a minor should not be allowed to transition their sex,” he continued. “That’s the biggest change you can make in your entire life. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that as a minor. This is what we say. What do you say?”
DEMS BLOCK GOP AMENDMENT TYING VOTER ID BILL TO TRANSGENDER SPORTS BAN
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to reporters after a briefing by Trump administration officials on U.S. strikes on Iran at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 2026. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu)
But Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., noted “that just over a month ago, a similar proposal was defeated on a bipartisan basis.”
“Current safeguards are working,” Padilla said. “And yes, it is already unlawful for non-citizens to vote in the United States. What this amendment does is mirrors earlier attempts to push through the president’s priorities, to try to take over elections, to ban vote by mail.”
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“And while we’re at it, while they’re at it, attacking trans folks during pride month, that’s pretty damn offensive,” he continued.
