Right now the Senate is debating the SAVE Act, and the question is whether or not they will put the filibuster aside to pass it. There are three ways to get around the filibuster:
Sixty senators vote to invoke cloture; this basically means to end debate and move on to voting on a bill.
Senators entirely remove the filibuster from the rulebook. That requires a two thirds vote, 67 senators, and it’s very unlikely to happen.
To not end the filibuster entirely, but to temporarily suspend it or to tweak it. That only requires 51 votes or 50 plus the vice president to break a tie.
Right now, there are 50 votes in the Senate among Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, but there aren’t 50 votes to put aside the filibuster or tweak it to pass it.
In the past, the Senate has put aside the filibuster for things like lower level judge nominations, cabinet nominations, and even nominees to the Supreme Court. But the Senate has never gone around the filibuster with a majority vote to pass a bill. Circumventing the filibuster for legislation with a majority vote would mark a new era in the Senate.
And this whole conversation about the filibuster with the SAVE Act is kind of ironic, because senators on the GOP side are basically saying that they’re fine disenfranchising people’s votes. But when it comes to their own Senate votes, well, they want to preserve that power. So we’ll have to see what happens.
But for now, Republican senators appear to not be willing to put aside the filibuster to pass this bill.
Ben Sheehan is a political commentator and digital creator. He specializes in civics education, which is showcased in his latest book, What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work. Check out his Substack, Politics Made Easy.
