This week: Senate tries to break the SAVE standstill

WASHINGTON — A storm is brewing in the nation’s capital, both inside and outside the halls of Congress.

Congress is barreling toward potential gridlock as friction grows between the chambers over the difficulty of passing a sweeping voter ID and election overhaul bill through the Senate. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has one last Hail Mary up his sleeve.

The Senate will move on to the legislation, now dubbed the SAVE America Act, and begin a multiday debate this week. The exact procedural steps were being ironed out behind the scenes, but rare Friday votes are expected, and even rarer weekend votes are being floated.

The showdown on the floor could begin as early as Tuesday. However, leadership faces an unexpected and formidable opponent Monday: Mother Nature. A nasty storm, which is said to bring the possibility of tornadoes, is expected to slam into Washington on Monday evening, possibly complicating fly-in travel.

The House already canceled its Monday evening votes, but the Senate is still scheduled to begin its workweek Monday evening.

Stuck on the SAVE Act

This week’s floor marathon is an effort by leadership to force debate on the bill and to put Democrats on the record. Thune is likely to bring up the SAVE America Act as a message from the House, meaning only a simple majority is needed to get it on to the floor. However, any amendments would need 60 votes for adoption, as would ending debate on the legislation — creating the math problem he has been struggling to solve.

As of now, it has little chance of passing. Currently, no Democrats have come out to publicly support the bill, which would require voters to prove U.S. citizenship at registration and present photo ID at the polls. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has said she is against the bill in its current form.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Sunday, “We don’t know what Thune is going to do yet, but we have prepared for every eventuality, and that includes if they do amendments. ... It has my caucus really, really motivated to do everything we can to stop it.”

The pressure campaign for Senate GOP leadership to depart from the chamber’s usual debate procedure ramped up last week. President Donald Trump and House members threatened to hold up bills if the Senate doesn’t take on what’s known as a talking filibuster.

“The Senate will no longer have legislation passed until the SAVE America Act is passed and on the President’s desk,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., threatened on X.

And Trump added new wrinkles by floating transgender-related bans and provisions that would end widespread mail-in voting.

Despite the pressure, including an escalating effort online, Thune has maintained that the votes do not exist to sustain a talking filibuster, and that doing one could disrupt the floor for months.

Even Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a prominent backer of the SAVE America Act, noted that a talking filibuster would jam up the Senate and, “realistically, I don’t think it’s going to work on it. That’s the hardest part.”

“It is within the rules and boundaries to be able to do this,” he told Punchbowl News. “But there’s a reason it hasn’t been done in so long, because it doesn’t work. Because eventually, everybody tires out and says, ‘OK, this is really not going to move.’”

Lankford said they would “need to defeat a lot of amendments” from Democrats. “And we don’t have the votes. This is a math issue. ... There’s a difference between the rules allow it and it’s a good idea.”

There’s been some discussion about attaching the SAVE America Act to an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expires April 20. But lawmakers have warned against further complicating the process as they grapple with whether to include any further changes to the controversial spy authority known as Section 702, such as warrant requirements for certain collected information.

FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe came to Capitol Hill last week to push a “clean extension” of Section 702.

And while the chambers come to a possible legislative halt, attention will be elsewhere — on conflicts overseas and a high-stakes hearing at home.

Mulling over Mullin

Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem in heading the Homeland Security Department, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., will return to the Capitol this week to face his colleagues as they consider his nomination to lead the agency.

Mullin will testify Wednesday morning to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He will likely field questions about the agency’s future handling of immigration enforcement tactics, withholding of FEMA aid and more.

GOP leaders are hoping to get his confirmation keyed up quickly on the Senate floor, and he is expected to get at least some bipartisan support, with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., saying he’d vote in favor.

If confirmed, Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, would become just the second indigenous person in modern times to serve on a presidential Cabinet.

Slow-moving shutdown

A month has now passed since the partial government shutdown began at DHS, and it seems that Democrats did not bite at the Mullin-shaped olive branch extended by the administration to help end the standoff.

Friday saw TSA workers miss a paycheck, and DHS said in a post over the weekend that more than 300 officers have left the force, with travelers facing hourslong lines at airports ahead of spring break season.

Despite a change at the top of the agency, little movement has happened behind the scenes to open DHS back up. Both sides exited last week pointing fingers at each other, decrying what they called bad-faith attempts at negotiating.

Immigration, Iran and Islamophobia

As the House prepares to consider some bills related to immigration and Iran, anger is brewing on the Democratic side over anti-Muslim social media posts from Republicans.

“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., posted last week. He added in another post: “Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back,” and later said, “Immigration is a national security threat.”

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., also posted: “We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., an Iranian American, posted on social media calling for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to punish Fine for his statements. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., already introduced a resolution to censure Ogles and remove him from his Homeland Security Committee assignment.

“Randy Fine’s vile racism should have already resulted in censure,” Ansari wrote. “(Johnson), will you reprimand Rep. Fine? ... Or does the Republican caucus condone racism?”

On the floor, the House is slated to consider two bills aimed at deporting immigrants with certain convictions, as well as a measure that would impose energy sanctions on Iran.

Questions of a war supplemental funding request have been circulating on Capitol Hill, though Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has said he does not expect to see a supplemental request before April.

At the committee level, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Patel and Ratcliffe will visit the House on Tuesday for the Intelligence panel’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing. Members will likely press officials on the upcoming spy powers authorization bill and U.S. involvement in international conflicts.

House homes in on housing

Aside from inter-chamber friction over the SAVE America bill, there’s also a fight brewing over a major housing bill — legislation that would bolster Republicans’ affordability messaging ahead of midterm elections — that the Senate easily passed last week.

House Financial Services Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., said after the bill’s passage Thursday that the Senate product doesn’t reflect the House’s priorities. Specifically, House Republicans want to strengthen a provision on a central bank digital currency.

The Senate legislation would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing such a token until after Dec. 31, 2030, but House conservatives are seeking a permanent ban.

Hill had already said ahead of the Senate vote that a conference to work out the differences between the chambers’ proposals may be necessary.