At face value, the SAVE America Act is simple and, you would think, worthy of becoming law.
Its first requirement is that you must present proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
And after you register, the bill says, you must show a photo ID at the polls to cast a ballot.
Americans overwhelmingly favor these two proposals. Democrats in Congress do not.
The Republican-led Senate voted to open what is likely to be a long, tedious floor fight over the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, brought up the measure despite his certainty that it lacks enough Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to move the bill toward passage.
Mr. Thune called up the legislation for one reason, and his name is President Trump.
The president, who is still pursuing claims that his loss in 2020 was rigged, threatened to withhold his signature from any other bill until Congress passes the SAVE America Act.
Now that the Senate is considering it, Mr. Trump has further vowed that any lawmaker who blocks it will face his opposition in their next election.
“A guaranteed loss!” Mr. Trump said.
Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican leading the bill, warned his GOP colleagues that quickly ending debate on the measure and letting it fail would be politically “suicidal.”
“We need to debate this as long as it takes to get it done,” Mr. Lee said.
The only Republican to vote against proceeding to the bill was Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is not up for reelection until 2028. She supports voter ID, which her state already requires, but said the bill goes too far in imposing other federal restrictions that should be left up to the states.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer says a long, pointless fight is fine with him.
“If MAGA Republicans want to bog down the Senate over a debate on voter suppression, Democrats are ready. We’re ready to be here all day, all night, as long as it takes to ensure the powers of voter suppression do not win the day,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
Opponents of the bill say a provision requiring states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls using a Homeland Security Department verification system would result in the purging of legal voters.
But Democrats don’t enjoy much public goodwill lately, as security lines at airports grow longer due to the Homeland Security funding impasse they provoked.
Some Republicans say Mr. Trump also is complicating the voter legislation by pushing for an amendment that would sharply curtail mail-in voting, which is favored by many in the GOP, and another proposal dealing with transgender policies. They say the measure was already an uphill climb in the Senate before tossing in those two issues.
