‘Debate it until it passes’: Mike Lee rallies Republicans behind Trump-backed SAVE Act
WASHINGTON, DC: Sen. Mike Lee called on Senate Republicans to step up efforts to pass the SAVE America Act, a GOP-backed voter eligibility bill that President Donald Trump has made a key legislative priority.
The Senate on Thursday, June 4, rejected the SAVE America Act, a Republican-backed election measure strongly supported by President Donald Trump, after four GOP senators joined Democrats in voting against an amendment to advance the legislation.
GOP will debate SAVE Act until it passes
Mike Lee pitched a strategy of bringing the SAVE Act to the Senate floor and keeping it under continuous debate to build momentum for its passage.
Lee told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream on Sunday, June 21, that the SAVE America Act makes “it easy to vote, hard to cheat.” The House passed the GOP-backed bill in February, but it has stalled in the Senate.
“And the Senate needs to be willing to do the hard work to make sure that that happens,” Lee said. “If we put it on the floor tomorrow and we announce that we’re going to debate it until it passes, I’m confident that we can get there.”
Bream noted that Republicans currently lack the votes needed to advance the bill in the Senate and questioned how it could pass without eliminating the filibuster.
Lee responded by noting that the legislation passed the House despite lacking bipartisan support.
“Now, while it’s true, we’re 10 votes shy of cloture, of forcing debate to a close, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t pass it,” he continued.
“There are a couple ways to get there. One would be nuking the filibuster, as you pointed out, that appears not likely to happen. But the other way is to exhaust the other side, to continue to debate the bill until it passes.”
Mike Lee says GOP has not done enough to pass SAVE Act
The Utah Republican added that dragging out the debate until the bill passes “needs to be used from time to time in situations like this one.”
“The truth is, we haven’t tried what I believe it takes to get the SAVE America Act passed, which is to put it on the floor and to say we’re going to debate this for weeks,” Lee said.
“And we’ll stay through weekends. We’ll stay through previously scheduled recesses if necessary, but we’re going to stay on this bill until it passes.”
Last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly acknowledged that Republicans do not have the votes to pass President Donald Trump’s preferred election reforms, exposing the limits of Trump’s influence in the Senate.
🚨 UPDATE: Senate Leader John Thune says SAVE America Act is DEAD, he's NOT getting the votes to nuke the filibuster, and he laughed when asked if President Trump could turn on him as a result
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 9, 2026
ROLLING OVER IS THE WRONG MOVE!
"We don't have the votes...the SAVE America didn't… pic.twitter.com/f2mKmG3v4d
Speaking to reporters, Thune made clear that support for the policy is not enough to overcome the Senate’s voting rules. “We don’t have the votes,” Thune said. He noted that the SAVE America Act “didn’t even get 50 votes on the floor.”
The SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) makes the proof of citizenship mandatory for people to register as voters.
Democrats have argued that limitations on college students and married women could disenfranchise them from voting, and that it could discourage people of color from casting their ballots.
