The House and Senate are in session this week. The House schedule was slightly impacted due to the forecasted storms that swept through the mid-Atlantic earlier this week. They will return next week before heading back home to their districts and states for the two week Easter recess that extends from March 30 through April 13.
After months of resisting calls from their conservative base, on Tuesday afternoon the Senate took the first procedural step toward considering the SAVE America Act – a bill that, among other things, requires proof of identification to vote, and proof of citizenship to register.
The Senate moved to proceed to the House passed bill in a privileged manner, meaning only 51 votes were required. Sen. Mitch McConnell, though opposing the bill, provided the last vote necessary to get to 51, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted no, and Sen. Thom Tillis didn’t vote.
Immediately after passing the motion to proceed, Majority Leader John Thune filled the amendment tree (a mechanism which allows for the consideration of a limited number of amendments at one time), thereby blocking Senators from being able to offer amendments, and putting before the Senate changes that President Trump has requested – a ban on transgender surgeries for minors, changes to mail-in balloting procedures, and a federal ban on biological males in women’s sports. You can see a visual representation of Thune filling the amendment tree here.
While this procedure is not technically the talking filibuster pushed for by many conservative voters, it is the first step in a deliberative process. Even though the amendment tree is full, Leader Thune has not yet moved to end debate by filing cloture – and by simply not doing that, the Senate floor is more open, and the deliberative process more free-wheeling, than the Senate has seen in roughly a decade.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. What many conservatives – including Sen. Mike Lee, who has been the chamber’s loudest advocate for the SAVE America Act – want to see is a serious effort from Senate Republicans to pass this bill. In practice, this means the chamber needs to deliberate: negotiate, persuade, build consensus, possibly consider more amendments, and if necessary, use the pain points of the process (live quorum calls, overnight sessions, etc) to force Senators to the table. A serious effort to pass the bill may also require several cloture votes, until passage, potentially with 60 votes or more, can be guaranteed.
In other words, the Senate must make time for what it prioritizes. The days and weeks ahead will soon provide clarity on how seriously the Senate takes an issue which 80 percent of the country supports.
ICYMI…
- Chronicles Magazine: The Fake Moderate Narrative Kills Again
- The American Mind: Playing the Wrong Game