Overview
- President Donald Trump on July 22 urged supporters at a Georgia rally to call Senate Majority Leader John Thune and pushed to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster to force passage of the SAVE America Act.
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 23 that the president’s “patience is running out,” signaling an intensified public campaign to move the bill before the August recess.
- Thune pushed back on July 23, telling the White House to ‘get on the phone and get the votes’ and arguing the measure lacks the Democratic support needed to overcome a filibuster in the 53-47 Senate.
- House Republicans have tried to bypass Senate hurdles by attaching SAVE provisions to other bills and advancing a budget blueprint that includes about $10 billion in state incentives to adopt parts of the bill.
- Procedural obstacles remain decisive: the Senate parliamentarian has limited reconciliation paths for election rules and several Republican senators refuse to back weakening the filibuster, making enactment before the midterms unlikely and deepening intra-GOP tensions.