Schumer says Dems ready for SAVE fight
Republicans are expected to bring the SAVE America Act to the floor this week under pressure from Trump and the MAGA right. Chuck Schumer says Democrats have prepared for every scenario.
TODAY IN CONGRESS
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Republicans are expected to bring the SAVE America Act to the floor this week under pressure from Trump and the MAGA right. Chuck Schumer says Democrats have prepared for every scenario.
Senate Republicans are preparing to bring the SAVE America Act to the floor this week under heavy pressure from President Donald Trump and the MAGA right, setting up a high-stakes procedural fight that could test GOP resistance to weakening the filibuster.
Some Republicans aligned with the president have floated forcing or sustaining a talking filibuster—a maneuver that would attempt to exhaust Democratic opposition and allow the bill to pass with a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes needed to end debate. The strategy is widely viewed as a long shot and would require buy-in from Republican senators who have repeatedly said they oppose altering the chamber’s filibuster rules.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined on a press call with election-law experts on Sunday afternoon to speculate about Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) exact floor plan, saying Democrats still don’t know which version of the bill Republicans will advance or how they will structure the process.
“We don’t yet know what Thune is doing,” Schumer said. “But we’re prepared for every possible scenario.”
The New York Democrat repeatedly emphasized that his caucus has already “mapped out” and “red-gamed” potential Republican strategies, including procedural changes, amendment fights and other attempts to move the legislation.
“We’ve tabletopped every single thing they might do,” Schumer said. “We’re prepared to meet each one and defeat this bill.”
The SAVE America Act would impose new voter-identification requirements and make sweeping changes to election administration, provisions Democrats argue would disenfranchise millions of voters. On the call, Schumer and the experts framed the measure as an effort to restrict voting access rather than strengthen election security.
Schumer also sidestepped questions about several unresolved issues surrounding the bill’s path to the floor, including Trump’s push to add provisions targeting transgender Americans, the possibility of attaching the legislation to a must-pass measure like FISA reauthorization and what amendment strategy Democrats might pursue.
Instead, he underscored that the party’s focus is on blocking the bill regardless of how Republicans proceed.
“This bill has a huge stench to it today,” Schumer said. “And that stench ain’t going away, nor is our desire to fight it.”
The procedural standoff could become one of the Senate’s biggest tests this year of how far Republicans are willing to go to advance Trump’s priorities—and whether the chamber’s procedural guardrails will hold under pressure from the White House and the president’s staunchest online supporters.
HAPPENINGS
All times Eastern.
The House will meet at noon and debate suspensions at 2 p.m. Votes are no longer expected this evening due to widespread flight delays related to inclement weather. First votes of the week are expected on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
The Senate will meet at 3 p.m. and will vote to limit debate on the nomination of Anna St. John to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The House Rules Committee will meet at 4 p.m. to prepare three bills for floor consideration, including legislation that would make non-citizens who defraud the federal government or unlawfully receive public benefits inadmissible and deportable and a measure that would do the same for non-citizens convicted of harming federal law-enforcement animals.
President Trump will participate in executive time at 8 a.m., a policy meeting at 11 a.m., a lunch with the Kennedy Center board members at 11:45 a.m., an interview at 2:30 p.m., signing time with Vice President JD Vance at 3:30 p.m. and a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass at 4 p.m.
IN THE KNOW
— House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson and two Democratic subcommittee leaders are asking the Government Accountability Office to expand its legal review of the Department of Homeland Security after the Transportation Security Administration circulated a shutdown video blaming long airport wait times on a “Democrat shutdown.” The lawmakers argue that the messaging may violate multiple federal statutes and improperly used taxpayer resources to push partisan political messaging during a lapse in appropriations.
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said a second federal court has ruled that the Trump administration illegally attempted to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by starving it of funding, ordering Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to request the money needed for the agency to operate. Warren said Democrats will keep fighting to defend the consumer watchdog, noting the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion to Americans harmed by banks and corporations.
— Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) said newly disclosed documents ordered by a federal judge undermine President Trump’s claim that a yearlong review justified his plan to close the Kennedy Center, arguing the materials show no evidence the administration consulted outside experts. The court has also ordered the Trump administration to allow Beatty, a Kennedy Center trustee, to participate in the board’s upcoming meeting and turn over records related to the proposed shutdown of the congressionally created arts institution.
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