There’s a bit of dark symmetry taking place in Washington. Four years ago, Democrats held a trifecta ahead of a critical midterm election with their party’s fate uncertain and hoping to pass a sweeping federal election bill. Their Republican counterparts are now engaged in a similar legislative dance. All that stands in the way is the filibuster in the Senate — and it’s there the steps begin to become less familiar.
Even in the absence of evidence that the mass voter fraud that President Donald Trump has claimed is taking place, congressional Republicans are facing pressure from him to put their stamp on federal elections. The House passed the SAVE America Act earlier this month, a bill that threatens to raise the threshold for participating in elections for millions of Americans.
Here’s how NBC News described the GOP’s bill:
The 32-page legislation would require states to obtain documentary proof-of-citizenship “in person,” such as an American passport or birth certificate, from someone in order to register them to vote in a federal election.
The bill, which was revised from an earlier version to include new demands from Trump, also requires voters to show photo identification in order to cast a ballot in person. And it slaps new rules for mail-in ballots, requiring voters to submit a copy of an eligible ID when requesting and casting an absentee ballot.
At least 50 Republican senators now back the bill — but that’s not enough to get past the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. And so, in a major reversal, hardline Republicans are now the ones pushing for the current filibuster’s demise — or at least, reform — after years of defending it. Specifically, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the chief sponsor of the bill, and his allies are hoping to revive the so-called “talking filibuster” in an effort to weaken the procedural stalling tactic and push past Democrats.
As the name suggests, a “talking filibuster” requires that a bill’s opponents actively hold control of the Senate floor, continually making speeches to block bills from proceeding to a final vote. It’s what most people picture thanks to depictions in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” or “The West Wing.” But under current Senate rules, without unanimous consent from all senators present, it’s assumed that a cloture vote needs to pass before moving forward on any substantive matters.
Lee’s push for the talking filibuster’s return has support among some of the most conservative members of the Senate including Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas. When confronted with the same hurdles four years ago as they attempted to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act in early 2022, progressive Democrats mounted an unsuccessful effort to amend or abolish the filibuster in its entirety.
Lee’s push for the talking filibuster’s return has support among some of the most conservative members of the Senate. Among the shifts Democrats proposed were making Election Day a federal holiday, expanding early voting nationwide, and creating a system for automatic voter registration. There was also an effort to shore up protections under the Voting Rights Act that had been whittled away over a decade of conservative court rulings It was the two most moderate Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, that stood in the way and allowed the bill to stall out. (Both would later become independents before leaving the Senate when their terms expired in 2025.) But while the Democratic push failed by a whisker, there’s much greater opposition remaining on the GOP side and little appetite from even the most stalwart reformists to aid them. “There aren’t anywhere close to the votes, not even close, to nuking the filibuster,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a press conference earlier this month. “So that idea is something, although it continues to be put out there. … That doesn’t have a future.” Likewise, Senate Republicans are reportedly passing among themselves op-eds like this one from GOP lawyer Michael Fragoso in National Review, which contends that the ploy would open the door to unlimited amendments from Democrats, bogging down the Senate entirely. Even with the prospect of a new Trump administration looming, I wrote in support of at least making it harder to filibuster in May 2024. Lee’s pivot to join me in my opposition is intensely ironic, given that it’s being done in the name of hindering Americans from voting. The filibuster remains an undemocratic blockade against Congress being able to fulfill its constitutional duties and has been used to forestall progress for decades. I can’t say that I’m too sorry to see the SAVE America Act caught in the filibuster’s maw — but I’d also shed no tears if the bill really was the thing to finally choke it out of existence.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
