This amidst the broader effort to advance legislation via the reconciliation process. Majority Leader Thune does not have the support of his own caucus.
Fox News reports that a cohort of Senate Republicans joined Democrats to sink a late-night attempt to attach a version of voter ID and citizenship verification legislation to the GOP’s bill funding federal immigration enforcement.
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., all voted against a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act early Thursday morning.
The only one who is understandable is Collins. She’s trying to keep her seat against a NAZI oysterman who is leading her by quite a bit in the polls. The others are betraying the people who voted them into office, probably because they hate Donald Trump.
Their defection came during the Senate’s marathon “vote-a-rama,” where lawmakers could force votes on any number of amendments, regardless of whether they mesh with the underlying budget blueprint. The amendment’s 48-to-50 failure crystallized what several Republicans had warned for weeks before launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the SAVE America Act last month—it didn’t have the support among the GOP to pass.
It appears the proposal was doomed even if Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., launched an oral filibuster to advance the measure with a simple 50-vote majority.