SCOTUS Rules Against AT&T, Verizon Over Fines For Selling Location Data

“Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean, voters in my state put it in our constitution,” he said.

“Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” he said.

“There’s reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me, why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it,” Hawley added.

Senate Republicans have struggled to advance President Donald Trump’s voter ID and citizenship verification legislation.

However, a late-night vote in the chamber revived a proposal many had considered all but dead.

During the Senate’s marathon vote-a-rama on the GOP’s $70 billion immigration enforcement package, Republicans made two attempts to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to the broader measure.

Both efforts fell short, as a group of Republicans joined Senate Democrats in opposing the amendments offered by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah.

The proposals faced steep odds regardless, as they needed to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold to advance.

Graham’s amendment sought to attach a revised version of the SAVE America Act that included several additional policy provisions, including a ban on biological males competing in women’s sports, a measure Trump had pushed for months.

Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — voted against the proposal.

Their opposition kept the amendment from reaching the 50-vote threshold Republicans would have needed to pursue a talking filibuster strategy.

Lee’s separate amendment, however, did secure 50 votes after Collins switched her position and backed the original version of the SAVE America Act.

As the vote-a-rama continued, Lee celebrated the result on X, noting that with Vice President JD Vance available to cast a tie-breaking vote, the SAVE America Act would have enough support to pass the Senate, Fox News reported.

“That means that but for the Zombie Filibuster, the House-passed SAVE America Act would now be on its way to the White House for President Trump’s signature,” Lee said.

Lee and some other Republicans have been leaning on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to launch a talking filibuster to grind down Democrats and advance the measure by a simple majority vote.

Senate Republicans previously mounted a lengthy floor effort in March to force debate on the SAVE America Act, but momentum behind the legislation has waned considerably in the months since.