Graham eyes ‘down payment’ on Trump-backed SAVE Act without Democratic support
A top Senate Republican is eyeing a way to put a "down payment" on Trump-backed voter ID legislation through a party-line bill later in the year.The Senate has been debating...
By Fox News · Fox News
A top Senate Republican is eyeing a way to put a "down payment" on Trump-backed voter ID legislation through a party-line bill later in the year. The Senate has been debating the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act for almost a month. But without Democratic votes to break the filibuster, the legislation has no chance of passing. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wants to put portions of the voter ID and citizenship verification legislation into a budget reconciliation package, which requires only Republican votes to pass. GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID "Reconciliation has limits, but we're going to make a down payment on the SAVE Act in reconciliation in the fall," Graham said Monday on a South Carolina radio show, "Straight Talk with Bill Frady." Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in charge of designing the framework for the reconciliation process in the upper chamber. He plans to meet with the White House Friday to "get this thing moving." Reconciliation does not allow for straight policy, meaning any provisions included in the package must have a budgetary or spending impact to survive Senate rules. If they don’t, they are stripped out. Graham says he has a solution. THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF 'CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS' AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT "Voter integrity laws — I'm going to create grant programs, but they'll have conditions on them," Graham said. "To get a grant, you’ve got to make sure you purge your rolls of illegal immigrants. There are a lot of blue states out there that don't do that, and we'll try to get as much of a voter ID system as I can." President Donald Trump and conservatives have demanded that the Senate launch a talking filibuster — or eliminate the filibuster entirely — to pass the SAVE America Act. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune , R-S.D., and other Republicans have made clear the option does not have enough support. The current floor deb…