President Donald Trump argued that the current DHS shutdown was a "Democrat shutdown," and that they feared the growing push for voter ID legislation in the Senate. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has led the charge in the Senate to build support around the SAVE America Act, hoped the bill would be on the floor as soon as the day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week.
But he acknowledged that ending the partial shutdown would likely take precedence.
"That’s the problem with taking a weeklong recess when they’ve shut down not just a department, but an entire department — and a particularly big department," Lee said.
"That’s valuable time lost. As far as the objective of getting us to turn to this next week shortly after we get back, that seems less possible in light of the fact that that happened," he continued.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, during a confirmation hearing in Washington, Jan. 16, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
And one of the first actions lawmakers will take when they return — unless a deal is struck between now and Monday — is to again vote on a full-year DHS funding bill, according to the current floor schedule in the upper chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and nearly every Senate Democrat blocked that bill and a short-term funding extension before lawmakers left town last week.
Trump told reporters earlier this week that the current DHS closure was a "Democrat shutdown, Republicans have nothing to do with it."
He also suggested that Democrats were in their shutdown posture because, among other issues, they rejected voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote.
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"If you have voter ID, if you have proof of citizenship, they could never get elected, and they know that," Trump said.
There are other issues in the Senate that need attention, too, Thune noted. Confirming more of Trump’s judicial nominees and putting a raft of bipartisan housing legislation that passed through the House on the floor are top of mind for the top Senate Republican.
Still, Lee was hopeful that once the DHS situation was resolved, the SAVE America Act would be next in line.
"What I hope we’ll do is get back, turn — perhaps immediately — to DHS funding and make [Democrats] continue to vote, continue to object to unanimous consent requests to pass some kind of funding mechanism, and keep making them vote over and over again until we get something like that passed," Lee said. "And then as soon thereafter as possible, turn to SAVE America."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-warns-democrats-using-dhs-shutdown-stall-senate-voter-id-push