A Talking Filibuster Could Save America

During President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech last week, he made it abundantly clear that passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require everyone to provide documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote and to show a photo ID to cast a ballot, must be a top priority for Congress.

Pointing out that both Republican and Democrat voters overwhelmingly support such requirements, Trump said, “Congress should unite and enact this common sense, country saving legislation right now. And it should be before anything else happens.”

This shouldn’t be a big ask. Republicans control both houses of Congress. The House passed it on February 11, despite the GOP’s microscopic majority. Yet the GOP’s 53-47 majority in the Senate hasn’t brought the bill to the floor for a vote. So, what’s the hold up?

The standard excuse is that the Democrats will filibuster the bill and that the Senate GOP doesn’t have the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture (Senate jargon for ending debate). But this isn’t necessary if the Democrats are forced to endure a “talking filibuster.”

A talking filibuster is exemplified by the classic film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which an idealistic Senator stages a 25-hour floor speech to block a vote on a corrupt bill. For most of the nation’s history, that was the only way a Senate vote could be stalled by the minority party.

That changed in 1917, when the Senate adopted a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture to three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn, or 60 of the 100-member Senate.

Today, a single senator can initiate a “silent filibuster” by simply objecting to any motion for a bill to proceed. This legislative purgatory is where the SAVE America Act languishes at present.

The good news is that the talking filibuster doesn’t require any Senate rules change. Moreover, there is a movement among Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), to revive the talking filibuster and force the Democrats to stand before C-Span cameras and defend their position. Sen. Lee discussed this with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo recently:

“We absolutely need the SAVE America Act. 85 to 90 percent of Americans agree that people have to establish that they’re citizens to vote in U.S. elections, and they should have to show up on polling day with a photo ID … We really owe it to the American people when we consider it to make any senators wishing to filibuster to actually speak. They shouldn’t be able to filibuster while they’re napping. They shouldn’t be able to filibuster while they’re at the Munich Security Conference.”

The bill secured the support of 50 Senate Republicans on February 11, more than ten days ago, following a pressure campaign by Sen. Lee, the White House and a number of Senate conservatives. Nonetheless, Senate Republican Leader John Thune has been sending mixed messages. Wednesday morning, he told Fox News that he would force a vote on the bill: “We will have a vote on it. We’ll make sure that the Democrats are on the record.” The next day, Punchbowl News reported that he declared the talking filibuster effectively dead.

Thune says, according to an NBC News report, “We want to get to the SAVE Act.” Yet he quickly provides specious reasons why the bill will be very difficult to pass via the talking filibuster: “If you go down that path, you’re talking about the need to table what are going to be numerous amendments and an ability to keep 50 Republicans unified, pretty much on every single vote. And there’s just not, there isn’t support for doing that at this point.” The supporters of the bill aren’t buying it, and they are putting a lot of pressure on him.

This pressure campaign began weeks before the President’s State of the Union Address, and Trump intensified it during the speech. After spelling out why the SAVE America Act was a priority, he turned his attention directly to Thune and said, “We have to do it, John.” MAGA influencers like Scott Presler are also personally lobbying Thune to launch a talking filibuster. Moreover, the House Freedom Caucus has released an ad that prominently features Thune and strongly urges voters to demand that the Senate utilize the tactic.

“You are going to hear the excuse that it needs 60 votes to pass there. That is not true. Senate rules allow bringing the SAVE America Act to the floor at any time. If 51 Republicans show up, Democrats would have to filibuster, standing and talking, hour after hour, to block it. As long as Republicans show a backbone and stay united, Democrats will eventually run out of time to talk. Tell your Senator to make the Democrats actually debate instead of just giving in to them.”

If the Republican leadership fails to heed this call, they will have squandered a historic opportunity. As Rachel Bovard points out at the Federalist, “Requiring voters to prove their citizenship is one of the most popular ideas in the country, with 84 percent of Americans supporting and only 15 percent opposed.” A talking filibuster would force the Democrats to reveal that they rely on illegal votes in order for their party to remain viable. There really is no other plausible reason for them to vote against the SAVE America Act.

Which brings us back to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Like the classic film, a talking filibuster would be great entertainment, and the corporate media would be unable to resist covering the spectacle. But the inevitable antics of the Democrats are unlikely to impress the public. So, it would be a win-win for the GOP – they can restore election integrity to the republic while the opposition immolates itself.

David Catron is a Senior Editor at the American Spectator. His writing has also appeared in PJ Media, the American Thinker, the Providence Journal, the Catholic Exchange and a variety of other publications.