Jan. 21, 2026, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Executive Director Robert Romano today issued the following statement urging Senate Republicans to vote on the SAVE Act even if they don’t have the votes to overcome a filibuster:
“If Senate Republicans are unwilling to abolish the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act, then it will require 60 votes. In 100+ years of the filibuster, the GOP has never had a filibuster-proof majority and so, even when in power with a trifecta, can never pass anything but bipartisan bills and since the Budget Control Act, budget reconciliation bills. That’s the so-called ‘uniparty’ voters occasionally complain about. It stops Democratic bills, too, so everyone should recall back to 2022 when Democrats explicitly tried to abolish the filibuster and it failed, thank goodness. The way the President is framing this right now, Republicans are in a race against time to abolish the filibuster and to secure elections with the SAVE Act before Democrats win a trifecta again in 2028 or 2032 — every time Democrats win the Presidency they usually win the trifecta going back a century.
“I’ve always thought that changes to Senate rules should be done by the rules requiring two-thirds of the Senate: ‘on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules… [a] necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting.’ But ever since both parties began confirming nominees simply by overriding the rules on simple majorities, and then Democrats attempted to just eliminate the filibuster by the same means in 2022, reciprocal partisan escalation in the Senate has rendered the question down to who’s willing to make the power grab first. In this context, it is interesting then that the Senate GOP definitely lacks the votes to overturn the filibuster (seems 20+ are opposed). But once Democrats ‘cross the Rubicon’ first on the filibuster they’ll apparently be fine with bare majorities for legislation. In other words, they don’t want to get blamed but they’ll be ok with blaming the other side when Democrats finally get around to abolishing the filibuster the next time they have the trifecta, and only then take full advantage of the rules change after they next win the trifecta, which might not happen with Puerto Rico and D.C. becoming states, packing the Senate, or voter ID being banned nationwide.
“So, for the SAVE Act, the options to pass the SAVE Act or to change the rules appear to be: 1) try to find about 10 Democrats to support some version of a SAVE Act; 2) put the SAVE Act up for a vote and then when it’s filibustered a member should make a motion to override the rules and it put it up for a vote so everyone’s on the record even though everyone thinks the motion would fail, allowing the American people to at least point out potential Democratic hypocrisy on changing filibuster rules, creating political predicate to blame them later when they do it anyway; or 3) bring up a motion to change Senate rules by the rules, a two-thirds vote, to change the standing rules of the Senate and just make it about that, again creating predicate to blame Democrats later when they do it anyway.
“Democrats have already said they want to change the rules, and Senators Manchin and Sinema are gone now so the Democratic caucus are presumably just members who say they want a simple majority Senate, and maybe half the Republicans want that, too. Ok, that’s more than enough to change Senate rules. If so, just vote on the rules change and let the will of the Senate be recognized whatever that is, and if it passes get back to doing things by the rules.
“It’s the same process whether or not we’re talking about legislation or a rules change. The bill or rules change resolution gets introduced and then placed on the Senate calendar. Unless the majority leader motions for unanimous consent to get it on the floor, triggering cloture rules, it just sits there and dies. So, whether it’s the SAVE Act or a resolution to amend Senate rules, the one person that controls that is Senate Majority Leader John Thune. He might be thinking ‘not on my watch’ and that’s fine. Lacking the votes, maybe Republicans would be better off figuring out their next budget reconciliation bill anyway. Nobody can pass any partisan legislation any other way, and bipartisan bills occasionally get to the President’s desk anyway, and so why waste any more time?
“Bring up the SAVE Act and vote already. If Democrats filibuster it, then somebody should motion to override the rules and test that, putting everyone on the record as voters have a right to know where every member stands, especially after the President has already called for the Senate to act on a rules change. And then get on to the second budget reconciliation bill so that 2026 is not a do-nothing year for Congressional Republicans.”
For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.
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