GOP warns Democrats using DHS shutdown to stall Senate voter ID push

By Fox News · Fox News

Senate Republicans are hoping to move full steam ahead on Trump-backed voter ID legislation, but there’s one problem — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still shut down. Though negotiations between Senate Democrats and the White House are still ongoing, albeit at a molasses-like pace, there is no clear sign that a deal will be struck before lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., next week. Reopening the agency will be front and center in the Senate, meaning other priorities, like the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, will be sidelined. MIKE LEE CALLS SCHUMER'S 'JIM CROW 2.0' ATTACK ON VOTER ID BILL 'PARANOID FANTASY' Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has led the charge in the Senate to build support around the SAVE America Act, hoped the bill would be on the floor as soon as the day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week. But he acknowledged that ending the partial shutdown would likely take precedence. "That’s the problem with taking a weeklong recess when they’ve shut down not just a department, but an entire department — and a particularly big department," Lee said. "That’s valuable time lost. As far as the objective of getting us to turn to this next week shortly after we get back, that seems less possible in light of the fact that that happened," he continued. THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: 'WE WILL HAVE A VOTE' Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., guaranteed that the voter ID legislation would get a vote. It’s just a matter of when, given the uncertainty surrounding DHS. "My job is to try and do the best to ensure that we're making the most, doing, getting the most we can out of the opportunity we have here," Thune told Fox News Digital. The SAVE America Act is riding high on a fresh wave of momentum in the Senate, with 50 Republicans, including Thune, backing it. That means it can move through at least one key procedural hurdle. "If we’re still…