In almost all midterm congressional elections, the President’s party loses seats in the House of Representatives. The only exceptions occurred in 1902, 1934, 1998, and 2002. This obviously means the razor-thin Republican House majority — and thus the GOP’s governing trifecta — will be in considerable peril next November. This being the case, common sense dictates that certain crucial bills should be prioritized by Congress and sent to President Trump’s desk for signature post haste. Considering the insecure and chaotic manner in which federal elections are conducted in blue states, the SAVE Act clearly falls into the must-pass category. Yet the Republican leadership in the Senate continues to vacillate.
They should follow the example of the Republican House leadership, who seem to understand how important it is to get an election integrity bill across the finish line. They have twice passed the SAVE Act, which would require states to obtain documentary proof of citizenship that complies with the REAL ID Act of 2005 before registering a person to vote in a federal election. Despite historically attenuated GOP majorities, the House passed the bill during the 118th Congress, but the Democrats who controlled the Senate at that time left it for dead. The House GOP passed it again during the current (119th) Congress, expecting the Republicans, who now hold a majority in the Senate, to take it up, yet still it languishes in committee.
Why the inertia? The excuse most commonly given by weak-kneed Republican Senators involves their reluctance to “nuke” the legislative filibuster. It is true that this should not be done without considerable circumspection, but this hoary relic of the 18th century is moribund. The Democrats have pledged to eliminate it in order to pass several pieces of controversial legislation and would have done so already, but for the opposition of former Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Sooner or later, the Democrats will regain control of the Senate, and they will consign the filibuster to history shortly thereafter. As early as 2020, the far left Brennan Center for Justice provided them with a pretext for doing so:
The filibuster was designed and used for decades to thwart civil rights legislation. In recent years, its use and abuse has only grown … The struggle for democracy and racial justice must be at the heart of our politics. Chief among these goals must be repair of our democratic systems, which, this pandemic has revealed, are so evidently in need of renewal. Millions of Americans are calling for major reforms to ensure our democracy continues to function — overhauling our elections, creating stricter ethics rules for elected and appointed officials, limiting the poisonous influence of money in politics, and ensuring that voters choose their elected officials.
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