Kennedy Urges GOP To Use Budget Reconciliation To Pass SAVE Act
Kennedy Urges GOP To Use Budget Reconciliation To Pass SAVE Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) is calling for a major tactical shift in the fight for election integrity, urging Senate Republicans to bypass a looming Democrat filibuster by passing the SAVE America Act through the budget reconciliation process.
Speaking from the Senate floor, Kennedy argued that the current path—a standard legislative vote requiring 60 signatures—is a "guaranteed dead end" given uniform Democrat opposition. Instead, he is pushing leadership to leverage the same simple-majority maneuver used to pass the landmark "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBBA) in 2025.
The Strategy: "Math, Not Magic"
With Republicans holding 53 seats, Kennedy noted that a reconciliation bill would only require 51 votes, with Vice President JD Vance available to break any ties. This would strip Senate Democrats of their primary weapon: the 60-vote cloture threshold.
The Model: Kennedy pointed to the OBBBA (Public Law 119-21), signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, which used reconciliation to enact massive tax cuts and $150 billion in border security funding.
The Goal: Incorporate the SAVE Act’s proof-of-citizenship requirements and national voter ID mandates into a new reconciliation package that also includes additional funding for ICE and defense.
Navigating the "Byrd Bath"
The primary hurdle for Kennedy’s plan is the Byrd Rule, which prohibits "extraneous" policy changes that do not have a direct impact on the federal budget. Provisions that fail this test are referred to as "Byrd droppings" and are stripped from the bill by the Senate Parliamentarian.
Kennedy remains undeterred, urging the GOP to enlist "the smartest lawyers in the room" to frame the SAVE Act as a budgetary necessity. He argued that the cost of administering elections and the federal oversight required for citizenship verification provide the "fiscal hook" needed to survive a Byrd bath.
“I’ve seen things pass muster that I didn’t think had a hope in hell,” Kennedy remarked. “You don’t know until you try, and we haven't tried.”
Leadership Skepticism and Pressure
While the proposal has energized the MAGA base, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has remained a "clear-eyed realist" regarding the math. Thune has prioritized a standard floor debate to put Democrats on the record, though he has not ruled out reconciliation as a long-term secondary option.
The pressure on Thune is intensifying as President Trump continues to label the SAVE Act his "top legislative priority," even threatening to block other must-pass legislation until the voting bill reaches his desk.
As the Senate prepares for a critical vote-a-rama before the spring recess, Kennedy’s proposal has turned the "Byrd Rule" into the next major battlefield for the 2026 election cycle. Whether the Parliamentarian allows a voting bill to be "cleaned" in a Byrd bath remains the $3 trillion question in Washington.
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Kennedy Urges GOP To Use Budget Reconciliation To Pass SAVE Act
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., in his patented off-the-cuff, southern style, urged the "smart lawyers" in Congress and beyond to rework the SAVE America Act to pass Senate parliamentarian "muster," so it can move to law with a simple budget reconciliation majority.
"You don't know till you try, and we haven't tried," Kennedy said Wednesday night during the brief Senate debate window on the federal election integrity bill seeking voter I.D., proof of citizenship, vetted voter rolls and mail-in ballot reforms.
"And if this bill is as important as everybody says it is — and I think it is because we're not just talking about voting; we're talking about the confidence, the trust of the American people in our elections if — this bill is as important as we say it is, we should try it through reconciliation."
Kennedy admitted he is "in the minority on this," but joked that "sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side."
SENATE GOP EYES BLAME GAME AS TRUMP-BACKED SAVE ACT HEADS FOR DEFEAT
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is urging the Senate to craft the SAVE America Act into a budget reconciliation bill passable by a simple majority instead of the 60-vote filibuster. (Anna Moneymaker / POOL / AFP)
"Sometimes someone in the minority can be right," he said, noting Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs even more convincing on budget reconciliation than he needed to bring this week's limited debate to the Senate floor on what could be President Donald Trump's signature election integrity law.
There are enough "smart lawyers" in the U.S. to find a budget reconciliation form of the bill, according to Kennedy.
"I haven't convinced Sen. Thune to that," he said. "I haven't convinced all my colleagues on either side of the aisle. But, I plan on continuing to chase them like they stole Thanksgiving and Christmas put together."
The bill might have to overcome Democrat filibuster in the next week before the Senate's Easter recess, particularly amid the new urgency on other Senate priorities, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., moving to a full Senate vote to confirm him as the next Department of Homeland Security secretary.
The Senate can debate Mullin's nomination as the SAVE America Act debate remains open, but it will be more complex than the normal confirmation process and take a few extra procedural votes, senior GOP sources told Fox News on Thursday.
The Senate procedure tends to be complex, but nothing a few "smart lawyers" cannot navigate, according to Kennedy.
"Anything you pass through reconciliation has to conform with the contours of the Budget Control Act: We call that giving a provision a 'Byrd bath,'" Kennedy said. "And our parliamentarian decides what passes muster under the Budget Control Act."
Kennedy dropped an "Oliver Wendell Scalia" challenge on the professed "smart lawyers" around Washington, referencing two of the most influential (and stylistically similar) Supreme Court justices in American history: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Antonin Scalia.
"We've got a lot of smart lawyers in the United States Senate: Every single one of them thinks they're Oliver Wendell Scalia," Kennedy said. "But we've got a lot of other smart lawyers in America.
"Here's what I'm getting at: We have yet to try going to these smart lawyers, some in the Senate — and some, believe it or not, not in the Senate — and saying, 'craft us a SAVE act that will pass muster under the Budget Control Act and can be blessed by the parliamentarian."
The bill being most actively pushed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, faces the tall 60-vote hurdle in the Senate, with Republicans holding just a 53-47 majority. The 45 Democrats and the two independents that caucus with them almost always obstruct any Trump agenda item.
But why fight the obstruction, Kennedy urged, just do an end run around it.
Some of my colleagues, those Oliver Wendell Scalia types, they say, 'Kennedy, you know that you'll never be able to do that': They don't know!" Kennedy said. "I've been here 10 years: I've seen things pass muster, survive a bird bath that I didn't think had a hope in hell.
"And I've seen provisions pass the parliamentarians' judgment under a Byrd bath," he continued, also admitting, "I've seen them not pass that I thought were slam dunks."
Lee hosted an X Spaces briefing late Wednesday night, dispelling the "lies" put forth by filibustering Democrats.
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"I've listened carefully to hours upon hours of the Democrats’ arguments against it I have yet to hear a single argument that I cannot refute — and in fact have not refuted on the Senate floor in the last 24 hours," Lee wrote on X. "Even worse, most of their arguments are based on a profoundly indefensible mischaracterization of my bill."
