Federal Appeals Court Holds That DHS Can Detain Illegal Alien Without Bond

How Radical Is the Virginia Abortion Amendment?

Minnesota at Center of SNAP Fraud as Loophole Draws Federal Scrutiny 

David Sacks Out as AI and Crypto Czar

Appeals Court Hands Trump Big Win on Detaining Illegal Immigrants

  PoliticsSecuritySocietyNews

Democrats Are Back to ‘Defund the Police,’ GOP Leadership Claims

Tom Homan Knows Why Democrats Want to Keep DHS Shut Down

‘I Made a Promise to God’: Christian Nonprofit Supports TSA Agents During Shutdown

China’s Military Went Silent Around Taiwan for First Time in Years. Why?

Congressman Asks Trump to Press China to Release Prisoners

Decoupling From China on Critical Minerals Must Be a National Security Priority

  PoliticsSecurityNews

Weaponized Immigration Methods Aimed at America

Republicans Divided on Budget Reconciliation Gamble for SAVE America Act

Why Can’t the Senate Come to a Deal on DHS?

Trump Fuels House GOP’s Record Haul Ahead of Bruising Midterms

Democrats Say Chinese Spying at Universities a ‘Xenophobic Conspiracy Theory’

SAVE America Act Thrusts Ohio Lawmakers Into the News

Trump Tells Senators to Pass the SAVE America Act ‘for Jesus’ 

Justices Skeptical of Counting Late-Arriving Ballots

Talking, Nuking, or Voting on the Filibuster: Where Does GOP Senate Infighting Go From Here?

Citing ‘Echo Chamber’ on Iran, Trump Counterterrorism Chief Resigns

International Commentary

‘It’s a Very Surreal War’

Netanyahu Refutes Death Rumor With Coffee Run

Hegseth: Iran’s Leader ‘Wounded and Likely Disfigured’

Girl Boss vs. Trad Wife: Forced to Choose?

Beyond the Oyster Fork: An Etiquette Expert’s Tips for ‘Relationships, Work, and Life’

Is the Iran Operation ‘America First’?

 International Commentary

Russia Operating ‘Systematic Child Abduction Operation,’ EU Ambassador Says

The Democrats Have Descended Into Utter Nihilism

Victor Davis Hanson: The New Democratic Party

While Some Allies Hesitate, Israel Is Already in the Fight Against Iran

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Kristi Noem Failed at DHS

Republicans Divided on Budget Reconciliation Gamble for SAVE America Act

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., (center) speaks as (left to right) Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W-Va., listen during a news briefing on March 24. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Virginia Grace McKinnon / @virginiagmck

Virginia Grace McKinnon is a journalism fellow at The Daily Signal. Send an email to Virginia Grace.

Republicans are turning to budget reconciliation to pass the SAVE America Act into law, but some doubt the process will result in the election integrity measures offered in the current version of the bill.

“There’s a lot of support for a budget reconciliation bill,” Majority Leader Thune, R-S.D., told press this week. While the budget reconciliation process, the process that resulted in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” last year, circumvents the Senate’s 60-vote cloture rule, some Republicans doubt that the SAVE America Act would end up on President Donald Trump’s desk.

The GOP strategy to pass the SAVE America Act has changed rapidly this week.

NEW: @SenMullin tells @DailySignal the Trump administration wants to use reconciliation to fund ICE and, "most importantly," pass the SAVE America Act. "There's a framework that we can do through reconciliation, paying for-put some of the policies that cost money in, because… pic.twitter.com/73HC4B3Ndk— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) March 24, 2026

NEW: @SenMullin tells @DailySignal the Trump administration wants to use reconciliation to fund ICE and, "most importantly," pass the SAVE America Act. "There's a framework that we can do through reconciliation, paying for-put some of the policies that cost money in, because… pic.twitter.com/73HC4B3Ndk

Over the weekend, Trump was pushing the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act using the talking filibuster, which would circumvent the Senate’s 60-vote cloture rule, before reopening the Department of Homeland Security.

After a meeting with Republican senators at the White House on Monday afternoon, however, Republicans have shifted to attempting to pass the SAVE America Act in a second reconciliation bill.

But budget reconciliation has rules that could prevent the SAVE America Act from being included in the legislation.

“I’m all for it, but I have not heard a single person make a cogent case that SAVE America Act is Byrd-able, that it will pass muster in the Senate,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said on “The Signal Sitdown.”

Mosques popping up all over Red Texas?It's one of the top concerns for @RepBrandonGill's constituents, and Congress needs to get real about the Islamization of America. pic.twitter.com/wpLZNQVgg5— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) March 26, 2026

Mosques popping up all over Red Texas?It's one of the top concerns for @RepBrandonGill's constituents, and Congress needs to get real about the Islamization of America. pic.twitter.com/wpLZNQVgg5

The Byrd Rule directs the Senate parliamentarian to block provisions unrelated to the budget from being a part of a reconciliation package. Conservatives are concerned that because the SAVE America Act’s provisions center around proof of citizenship to vote and implementing nationwide voter ID, it would not survive the parliamentarian’s “Byrd bath.”

“If it is, great. But I do not think that we should be getting our voters and the American people’s hopes up that that’s going to work,” Gill said.

“The purpose of all of this is not to message,” Gill continued. “It’s to get this on the president’s desk. And candidly, I don’t think reconciliation is the way to do that. I think that if it were, we likely would have done it in the first reconciliation bill, but we didn’t.”

Senate Republicans claiming they will pass the SAVE America Act via budget reconciliation are gaslighting you.Enough failure theater — pass the bill! pic.twitter.com/gsqez8KeLw— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 25, 2026

Senate Republicans claiming they will pass the SAVE America Act via budget reconciliation are gaslighting you.Enough failure theater — pass the bill! pic.twitter.com/gsqez8KeLw

The House Freedom Caucus also doubts that the SAVE America Act will survive reconciliation. “Senate Republicans claiming they will pass the SAVE America Act via budget reconciliation are gaslighting you,” the caucus posted on X.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, two members who have been pushing hard for this legislation to reach the president’s desk, agreed that this is not a viable option. Self went as far as to say that anyone who says they can is “lying to you.” 

The Republican Study Committee, chaired by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, previously put out a framework for a second reconciliation bill in January, focused on housing, health care, and energy.

Pfluger suggests that reconciliation offers a path forward for these issues and for the SAVE America Act.

“When 84% of Americans support requiring proof of citizenship to vote and the Left is still blocking it, that tells you everything you need to know about why reconciliation is the only path forward,” Pfluger told The Daily Signal.  

EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Action Makes SAVE America Act ‘Key Vote’

‘SHOW VOTE’: Conservatives Outraged at Thune’s Decision to Vote on SAVE America Act Without Talking Filibuster

Schmitt Leads Charge to Pack SAVE America Act With Conservative Wins

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

The Tony Kinnett Cast

The Daily Signal Podcast

© 2025 The Daily Signal Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

We use cookies on our website. By using our website, you consent to cookies.  Learn More .  

© The Daily Signal