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One key Republican’s extended absence and unclear timetable for return is slowing down several legislative priorities, and could impact President Donald Trump’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act in an unexpected way.
And while sparse statements from him and his office say he’s on the mend, there has yet to be a hard date for when he’ll come back to Congress.
It comes as Republicans are twisting and contorting Trump’s top election priority into something that could pass the Senate. Though McConnell has voted against the bill before, he would be a key player in crafting what it would look like in the upper chamber.
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“That could be an issue,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “I think there are a lot of issues.”
That’s because McConnell is chair of the Senate Rules Committee, which will likely be responsible for drafting the version of the SAVE America Act that could pass muster in budget reconciliation, the process that Trump is pushing the GOP to use to pass the bill.
The uncertainty around McConnell, coupled with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent death, throws a wrench into the process. Graham was chair of the Senate Budget Committee, and acted as quarterback through two dances with reconciliation over the past year.
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But Graham’s replacement on the panel, Johnson, could step in and draft language for SAVE America as chair of the Budget Committee — Graham leapfrogged Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., in 2025 to draft his portion of the “big, beautiful bill.”
“That’s my understanding — it actually falls to budget,” Johnson said. “So, again … this is still really early in the process, so I don’t have all the answers by a long stretch. Plus, we’ve got to find out what the conference wants to do, and what Leader John Thune wants to do.”
Thune is focusing on preventing a government shutdown, and is encouraging ongoing bipartisan negotiations on a funding deal to continue. And he has threatened to press pause on reconciliation by holding the House’s own budget framework until that objective is accomplished.
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He reiterated to Fox News Digital that Republicans don’t have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act, and may not have the votes to pass a budget resolution in the upper chamber.
And he noted that the SAVE America Act would have to comply with the Senate’s strict rules for reconciliation that unlock the 50-vote threshold, which the current version of the bill does not.
Getting the legislation to a point where it wouldn’t slam into those guardrails has remained an open and difficult question for Republicans — Thune suggested that it could work if it’s “very carefully structured based upon incentive, mostly grant money,” for states.
“So, you know, we’re gonna do everything we can to move that forward,” Thune said. “But as I told you before, the math on that hasn’t changed yet. It’s still likely to be a 60-vote exercise, even if it’s done with a budget resolution.”
Trump demanded Republicans ram through their own budget resolution before they leave Washington, D.C., until after Labor Day on Truth Social Friday to fund defense, agriculture, and pass “as much of the SAVE AMERICA ACT as possible.”
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“Our voters will be extremely happy — And even impressed,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Thune has received criticism from Republicans for his plan to hold up the reconciliation process in favor of averting a shutdown.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital the only option to pass SAVE America was through reconciliation, and he’s been working on his own plan in the background, and believes it could survive the Senate’s “Byrd” test.
“I can’t guarantee it, but it’s a — I consider it to be a credible argument,” Kennedy said. “And I will try to do that, and I will try to, at the right time, bring my colleagues, and, more importantly, the parliamentarian, along. But if we don’t do it through reconciliation, through the House reconciliation, we won’t get it done.”
“And I’m not sure it will work, but I think it might,” he continued. “It’s at least a 50/50 shot.”
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