March 20, 2026
Why don’t we just take a peek and see what going on on the Senate floor…where they’ve been debating the SAVE America act for the last four days….and I’m going to speed it up because Senators talk really slow.
Sooooo – it’s going just about as well as you’d think.
Look – the reality is this. The Republicans do not have the votes to pass the SAVE America act. They can debate it until they’re blue in the face – but even the senate majority leader — a Republican – the guy in charge says they don’t have the votes.
So – that leaves two questions?
One – why are Republicans in the Senate eating up precious moments on the floor to debate a bill that does not have a chance of becoming law – especially when we’ve got a whole lot of things going on in this country and in the world? And two – how much longer is this debate going to go on?
Let’s start with why are they debating on a bill that basically has no chance of passing. The simple answer is – because President Trump and his Senate allies want to see it happen. Now – not all Senate Republicans are on board with this strategy of dragging out the debate – lots of them believe midterm voters are more worried about funding homeland security, affordability, the cost of living and soaring gas prices and they think working on those issues may be a better use of their floor time. But it is what it is and this debate on the SAVE America has been going on all this week and probably will go on for a good portion of next week too.
So let’s talk about the timing for when this may come to an end. The fact is — the Senate is going to say in Washington for a rare working weekend this weekend. They’re adjourned for the day today – but they’ll be back tomorrow and probably Sunday too. Now they’re not only going to be talking about the SAVE America act this weekend. They’re going to vote on at least one amendment to the SAVE America act that President Trump is pushing. We are expecting to see a vote on an amendment to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Obviously that has nothing to do with voting – which is the whole point of the SAVE America act – but President Trump wants it in the bill anyway. So that’s what they’re doing. But the reality is – regardless of what Trump wants this amendment is going to fail because it will need 60 votes. It won’t get there.
The Republican sponsors of the SAVE America act are hell bent on continuing this debate on the Senate floor bill until they convince at least 7 Democrats to also vote yes or enough Republicans vote to bring back the talking filibuster. It’s highly unlikely either of those things are ever going to happen. So who is going to blink first? Well – there’s one motivating force that may get one side or the other to cave….and that is a scheduled recess. That’s right at the end of next week the Senate is scheduled to leave for a two week recess. Let me tell you – nothing motivates these lawmakers to get stuff done – quite like a pending recess. The senate majority leader has even threatened to cancel the recess if stuff doesn’t get done.
