Republicans Losing Faith In Top Leader

Republican frustration is beginning to spill into public view as a major election bill backed by President Donald Trump remains stuck in the Senate.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, is openly questioning Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s handling of the SAVE America Act, arguing that Republicans should force a public debate over legislation requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and photo identification at the polls.

Her criticism comes at a particularly important moment for Republicans in Washington. Congress is approaching another government funding deadline while lawmakers are simultaneously confronting unfinished business involving election legislation, defense spending, taxes, housing and the farm bill.

For Van Duyne, however, the Senate’s failure to advance the election measure appears to be a growing source of frustration.

“Every day, you’re right, I seem to lose a little bit more faith in John Thune,” Van Duyne said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “Saturday Agenda.”

She hasn’t completely given up on the Senate Republican leader.

“I’m hoping that won’t be the case. He’s still got a couple of weeks, a couple months to be able to do the right thing. Let’s just get it done,” she said.

SAVE America Act Stalls In The Senate

The disagreement centers on the SAVE America Act, legislation that would establish new nationwide requirements surrounding voter registration and identification.

The House passed the measure on Feb. 16 with support from all 217 Republicans and one Democrat.

Under the legislation, Americans registering to vote would be required to provide documentary evidence of U.S. citizenship. Voters would also be required to present photo identification when casting their ballots.

Van Duyne said the House has approved the proposal four times and believes senators should now be forced to publicly debate the legislation rather than allowing it to remain stalled.

“Let’s have people on the floor fighting to explain why they wouldn’t pass something that’s got an 80% approval rate,” Van Duyne said.

The Texas Republican’s argument highlights a familiar source of tension between the House and Senate.

House Republicans can pass legislation with a simple majority, but most major bills face a much higher procedural hurdle in the Senate.

Republicans Face A 60-Vote Problem

The SAVE America Act currently has the support of 50 Republican senators. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins became the latest senator to back the legislation.

That still leaves supporters well short of the 60 votes generally necessary to overcome a filibuster and advance the bill.

President Trump has offered Republicans a dramatic solution: eliminate the Senate filibuster and allow the GOP majority to advance its agenda without obtaining 60 votes.

Thune has pushed back against that possibility.

According to the Senate majority leader, Republicans are “not even close” to having sufficient support within their own ranks to eliminate the filibuster.

That leaves GOP lawmakers facing a difficult political calculation.

They can continue searching for Democratic support for the election legislation, attempt to change Senate rules or accept that the House-passed measure may remain stalled.

Van Duyne clearly wants Republicans to keep pushing.

Voter ID Has Broad Support In Polling

One reason Republicans continue emphasizing the issue is that voter identification requirements have received substantial support in national polling.

A Gallup survey conducted in October 2024 found that 84% of Americans favored requiring voters to present photo identification.

The survey also found that 83% supported requiring people registering to vote for the first time to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.

Perhaps most notably, support extended beyond Republican voters. Approximately two-thirds of Democrats surveyed supported a citizenship-documentation requirement for first-time voter registration.

Those numbers help explain why Republicans believe the issue could resonate with voters heading into the midterm elections.

Supporters contend that identification and citizenship-verification rules are reasonable safeguards designed to increase confidence in elections.

Opponents have raised concerns about whether additional documentation requirements could create unnecessary difficulties for some eligible voters.

Could The Changes Take Effect Before November?

Even if Congress manages to pass the legislation, another major question remains: timing.

With the November elections rapidly approaching, implementing substantial changes to voter registration and identification procedures nationwide could prove challenging.

Van Duyne acknowledged that reality.

“You could implement it. It just may not be able to affect the November election cycle,” she said.

Election officials have similarly warned that implementing the proposed requirements across the country before November may not be realistic.

That could mean Republicans score a significant legislative victory without seeing the new requirements actually affect the upcoming midterm elections.

Van Duyne nevertheless rejected the broader argument that identification requirements would place an unreasonable burden on Americans.

“This is not outside the realm of normalcy for Americans,” she said.

She argued that providing identification is already a routine part of everyday American life and strongly disputed claims that the legislation would create an excessive obstacle to voting.

“To act as if it’s some kind of massive problem that people are going to have to achieve just to be able to go vote is just a complete lie,” Van Duyne said.

Government Shutdown Deadline Is Getting Closer

The election fight is far from the only challenge facing congressional Republicans.

Lawmakers must also address federal spending before current government funding expires Sept. 30.

Failure to reach an agreement could once again put Washington on a path toward a government shutdown.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a temporary spending measure on Aug. 8 by a 90-6 vote. That legislation would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11.

The House, however, has not yet acted.

The approaching deadline carries additional significance following the 43-day government shutdown that ended in November and became the longest shutdown in American history.

Van Duyne said she wants any temporary funding agreement to include money for replenishing U.S. military munitions.

Defense spending has become another major item on Congress’s unfinished agenda.

The House approved its fiscal 2027 defense authorization legislation in July, but that measure has also stalled in the Senate.

Van Duyne Wants Tax Changes Included

Van Duyne is simultaneously pushing Republicans to pursue another reconciliation package focused partly on taxes.

Among her priorities is the bipartisan GROWTH Act.

The proposal would allow Americans invested in mutual funds to defer taxes on certain gains when that money is automatically reinvested rather than taken by the investor.

Van Duyne is also supporting a change that would account for inflation when calculating capital gains on real estate held for extended periods.

Such a policy could have significant consequences for Americans who purchased their homes decades ago and have watched property values climb substantially over the years.

A homeowner may appear to have generated a very large gain when selling a property, even though part of that increase reflects decades of inflation rather than an equivalent increase in purchasing power.

Van Duyne believes changing the tax treatment could encourage some longtime homeowners to finally sell.

“People who have been in homes for decades … could actually sell their properties without having a massive tax bill,” she said.

She argues that putting more of those properties onto the market could increase housing inventory at a time when affordability and supply remain major concerns for Americans.

Defense And Farm Legislation Remain Unfinished

Republicans also have substantial work remaining on two other major legislative priorities.

The House approved its fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill in July, but Senate action is still pending.

Meanwhile, the farm bill remains in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Taken together, those issues leave Congress with an unusually crowded agenda and relatively little time to resolve it.

Lawmakers are dealing with government funding, military priorities, election rules, tax policy, housing concerns and agricultural legislation while simultaneously preparing for the approaching midterm elections.

Pressure Builds On Thune And Senate Republicans

Van Duyne’s comments demonstrate the political pressure Senate Republicans could increasingly face from their House counterparts.

House Republicans have already voted for the SAVE America Act. Now some members want the Senate to put lawmakers on the record and determine whether the proposal can attract the votes necessary to advance.

For Trump, the impasse also revives the larger Republican debate over the Senate filibuster.

Eliminating it could make advancing parts of the president’s agenda easier while fundamentally changing the way legislation moves through the Senate. Thune’s position indicates that such a dramatic change currently lacks sufficient Republican support.

That means the immediate question isn’t simply whether Republicans support voter ID and citizenship verification.

It’s whether GOP leaders can find a legislative path capable of turning those priorities into federal law.

And that is only one item on a rapidly growing congressional to-do list.

“We’ve got our hands full in a very short period of time,” Van Duyne said.

With the Sept. 30 funding deadline approaching and November elections not far behind, Republicans have limited time to determine how many of those priorities they can actually move across the finish line.