Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) needs to get to work on passing the rest of President Trump’s agenda with fewer than 100 days to go before the midterm elections, a key member of the GOP’s rank-and-file warned Sunday.
“Look, I mean no disrespect. I love John Thune. He’s my leader. He’s got a big brain. He’s better looking than me, but I think he’s just being too cautious,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” adding that the majority leader “wants to spend the rest of our time talking with [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer about shutting down government, and the Graham Platner wing of the [Democratic] party is, his party, is not going to let Schumer agree with us.
“They already want to give Schumer a bathrobe, a Popsicle, and an early bedtime, and have him retire. I don’t think Chuck can agree with us,” Kennedy predicted. “I think he’s going to shut down government.”
The Senate is due to remain in session through Aug. 7 before breaking for a five-week recess and returning Sept. 14.
“We need to put the, the House budget resolution on the floor,” Kennedy told host Margaret Brennan. “It’s the only chance we have to get money to defense, the farmers, and to take another crack at the SAVE Act. We need to add Iran to the [Lindsey] Graham Russian sanctions bill and vote on it. We need to put the cryptocurrency market structure bill on the floor and vote on it.”
Before leaving for its August recess last week, the House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would fund the government until Dec. 4. Some Senate Republicans, including Kennedy, want to tack the Trump-endorsed SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship before registering to vote and provide photo identification before casting a ballot, onto the budget resolution.
Currently, a shutdown is set to begin at 11:59 p.m. ET Sept. 30.
“In my opinion, for both sides to have credibility in the elections, in our elections, we need to do two things and only two things,” Kennedy said Sunday. “Number one, you have to prove you are who you say you are in order to register to vote and to vote. And number two, however you decide to vote, that’s up to the states, we need to go back to having an election day, not an election month. We’ve got to know the results of [an] election that night or shortly thereafter if it’s close.
“That to me is what the SAVE Act is all about, and I think we can pass it … but we’re not going to know if we don’t try.”
The Louisianan’s comments came three days after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump’s “patience is running out” with Thune.
A day earlier, the president had told supporters in Georgia to “call John Thune, he’s the leader of the Republican Party, and tell him to get this stuff approved.”
Democrats have repeatedly blocked Republican attempts to bring the SAVE America Act to the Senate floor for debate.
In an interview with The Post earlier this month, Thune warned that Republicans don’t have “close” to the 60 votes needed to eliminate the filibuster, and no way of getting Democrats on board with the bill.
That leaves the GOP trying to figure out a way to pass the SAVE America Act via the party-line reconciliation process, which is typically reserved for budget-related legislation rather than policy. Traditionally, the Senate parliamentarian has the final say over what constitutes budget-related matters.
“Figuring out a way to incentivize states to pass or to implement photo ID in their states through financial incentives is something that’s been talked about as a possible reconciliation option,” Thune said July 15. “How you design or structure it matters a lot.”
