The Senate packed its bags Saturday for August recess without passing the SAVE America Act — leaving Americans with no federal guarantee that only citizens decide elections, while finding plenty of time to fund wars, ship aid overseas, and keep the Washington spending spigot open.
What the Senate did manage to pass before fleeing town: a bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government into December, a Russian sanctions package to aid Ukraine, and confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general. War funding, government spending, and personnel — all cleared. Election integrity — left on the table.
The SAVE America Act, President Trump's legislative priority, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot. It has now stalled twice — the Senate also skipped town in June without acting on it.
The failure cuts both ways. Every Senate Democrat voted against a slimmer photo ID bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, which fell 52-60, short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. Fox News noted that Schumer had previously claimed Democrats support voter ID — then every member of his conference voted against it. But Republicans couldn't unite their own conference, either. Fortune reported that the SAVE Act "does not have enough support from the Republicans who hold majority power, let alone the Democrats whose votes would be needed to advance it."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former GOP leader whose absence has narrowed the Republican majority, was not present for any of it — released from a rehabilitation center and recovering at home.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, had objected to the recess departure just hours before the decision. "We can't commit to summer vacation before we commit to secure elections," Lee posted Friday on X. By Saturday, he was gone like the rest. "We're not dropping SAVE," Lee said, according to Fox News. "It's a matter of time."
Time is what the Senate doesn't have. Fox News reported the chamber returns the third week of September, will leave again for nearly all of October ahead of November midterms, and still has to deal with cryptocurrency regulation and college sports legislation.
The path forward is murky. Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, and Lee had pushed a budget reconciliation package — reported at $95 billion by the Daily Caller and $150 billion by Fox News — bundling election integrity provisions with Iran war funding, Pentagon spending, and farmer aid. Trump personally intervened late Friday after a phone call with the three senators, agreeing the better course was to "work diligently through August into September to do an actually better budget reconciliation bill," Johnson said.
But reconciliation is no sure thing. Fox News reported the Senate's rules chief will ultimately decide whether SAVE Act provisions pass muster with reconciliation's guardrails. Trump has gone so far as to urge Republicans to abandon the filibuster to jam the bill through — something Majority Leader John Thune and most senators have refused to consider.
Thune also refused Trump's calls to cancel the August recess outright. "I think everybody's, for the most part, on the same page," Thune said of the trio's call with the president.
The White House placed the blame on Democrats. "Every American should be asking why Democrats are fighting against election integrity at every turn," spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "They oppose voter ID and commonsense measures that would ensure only Americans decide American elections."
Scott struck a defiant note: "This fight isn't over. We have a job to do, and I'm looking forward to getting this done with you, my friend."
The pattern is clear enough. When it comes to continuing resolutions that keep Washington funded, sanctions packages that commit American resources overseas, and war spending that depletes U.S. munitions — the Senate finds bipartisan consensus in a hurry. Securing the franchise? That can wait until September. Maybe.
The Senate returns the third week of September with roughly six weeks in session before the midterms. Whether a bill that couldn't pass in eight months can pass in six — with a Republican conference that isn't unified and a Democratic conference that won't budge — is a question none of the senators heading home seem eager to answer.
