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国会共和党人多次强调，在未来几天通过《拯救美国法案》至关重要。该法案要求投票时提供公民身份证明。
“我们需要让在美国投票变得容易，同时让作弊变得困难，”俄亥俄州共和党参议员乔恩·哈斯特德表示。
“《拯救美国法案》是一项重要法案，”佛罗里达州共和党参议员里克·斯科特在福克斯新闻中表示，“所以我们必须想办法通过它。”
[特朗普支持的选民身份法案面临共和党内部阻力，蒂利斯誓言阻止]
[图片1：佛罗里达州共和党参议员里克·斯科特]
佛罗里达州共和党参议员里克·斯科特表示，除非航班延误和取消现象越来越严重，否则参议院民主党人不会认真对待政府停摆。（比尔·克拉克/CQ-滚石报通过盖蒂图片社提供）
这就是参议院共和党人面临的难题——如何确保法案通过。
《拯救美国法案》是唐纳德·特朗普总统立法议程的核心。事实上，总统警告称，除非国会满足他的要求，否则他不会签署任何其他法案——除了可能的国土安全部（DHS）资金法案。
共和党人一致认为《拯救美国法案》的重要性，但南达科他州共和党参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩承诺，除了通过法案外，其他一切都可以谈。
“我将把《拯救美国法案》提交参议院进行全面而充分的辩论，”图恩表示。
这是因为共和党人无法打破民主党人的阻挠议事。
“这是我们长期以来在美国看到的最糟糕的事情之一，”纽约州民主党参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默表示。
[舒默抨击黑格塞斯为军队提供帝王蟹餐，但拜登时期的收据显示类似账单]
[图片2：参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默]
2026年3月5日，纽约州民主党参议院少数党领袖查尔斯·舒默在美国国会大厦外参加新闻发布会。（汤姆·威廉姆斯/CQ-滚石报通过盖蒂图片社提供）
“总统希望通过这项法案的真正原因是减少参加11月选举的人数，”伊利诺伊州民主党参议院少数党党鞭迪克·德宾表示。
打破阻挠议事需要60票。参议院共和党人只有53票。因此，一些共和党人主张通过议会策略彻底废除阻挠议事规则。
“我愿意废除阻挠议事规则以通过《拯救美国法案》，”堪萨斯州共和党参议员罗杰·马歇尔表示。
冷战时期的言辞充斥着整个辩论。事实上，保守派恳求图恩在民主党人再次在秋季或未来十年控制参议院之前，先发制人地废除阻挠议事规则。
“这实际上是我能看到的防止他们在获得参议院多数席位后废除阻挠议事规则的唯一方法，”威斯康星州共和党参议员罗恩·约翰逊表示。
其他共和党人希望迫使民主党人进行老式的阻挠议事——直到他们筋疲力尽。
“他们应该像过去一样站在发言席上连续发言。他们可以想说多久就说多久，但迟早他们会耗尽时间，”密苏里州共和党参议员乔希·霍利表示。
如果经过几天或几周的辩论后所有人都筋疲力尽，那么参议院不需要60票的测试投票来打破阻挠议事规则。这意味着他们可以以简单多数（51票）通过法案。
许多共和党参议员现在引用20世纪30年代弗兰克·卡普拉的经典电影《史密斯先生到华盛顿》。在这部电影中，吉米·斯图尔特饰演的理想主义参议员进行阻挠议事，直到在参议院会议厅倒下。
“他们应该像吉米·斯图尔特那样连续数小时站在那里，”密苏里州共和党参议员埃里克·施密特表示。
但大多数共和党人反对吉米·斯图尔特式的阻挠议事方式。他们不仅担心无限制的辩论，更担心无限制的修正案程序。
“这种冗长辩论的阻挠议事将是一场混乱。我是说，这可能需要两到三周时间。民主党人会提出各种有问题的修正案，”持怀疑态度的北卡罗来纳州共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯预测，“还没有人向我描述过具体的计划。比如需要多少天，如何应对这种情况。我们已经全面考虑了政治立场，最终会成功的。”
但不会有无限制的修正案程序。虽然图恩会允许辩论持续一段时间（福克斯被告知可能一周或更长时间，甚至可能全天候），但他将掌握“球权”。图恩不会立即提出结束辩论的测试投票（需要60票），但他会立即阻止双方的所有修正案。
就像国会山上的所有事情一样，这关乎数学计算。尽管会有很多关于《拯救美国法案》和冗长辩论的讨论，但共和党方面没有足够的支持来废除参议院的阻挠议事规则和先例。
“我们中的许多人认为不应该废除阻挠议事规则，因为它保障了多数党的权利。总有一天我们会回到少数党，”西弗吉尼亚州共和党参议员雪莱·摩尔·卡皮托表示，“这确实是一个分裂点。”
卡皮托补充说，他们有“意愿”处理《拯救美国法案》，但要通过议会策略废除阻挠议事规则来通过法案是不可能的。
“没有足够的票数来完成这项任务，”卡皮托观察到。
特朗普和其他保守派开始加大对图恩的压力。
[图恩保证选民身份法案将在参议院投票，尽管舒默和民主党反对：“我们将进行投票”]
[图片3：参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩，R-S.D.]
南达科他州共和党人、总统表示：“我认为他是个很棒的人。我确实这么认为。但这不是他不想做，而是他认为自己做不到。这很糟糕。”
尽管批评指向图恩，一些共和党人仍在为他辩护。
“不是约翰·图恩在扼杀它，而是共和党成员不相信可以通过冗长辩论来通过这项法案，”怀俄明州共和党参议员辛西娅·卢米斯表示，“这将给美国参议院的其他事务带来巨大的延误，而无法通过《拯救美国法案》取得积极成果。”
值得注意的是，总统没有因为图恩不愿废除阻挠议事规则以通过《拯救美国法案》而公开批评他。然而，特朗普在第一任期内经常要求前参议院多数党领袖、肯塔基州共和党参议员米奇·麦康奈尔这样做。总统经常抨击麦康奈尔管理参议院的方式，尽管这位肯塔基州共和党人确立了抑制最高法院提名人阻挠议事的新先例。麦康奈尔在阻挠议事规则上的策略确保了最高法院大法官尼尔·戈萨奇、布雷特·卡瓦诺和艾米·科尼·巴雷特的确认。
但到目前为止，没有对图恩的严厉批评。
尽管如此，一些共和党人认为参议院的“魔法”可以挽救《拯救美国法案》。
“我以前见过约翰·图恩从帽子里变出兔子，”卢米斯表示，“我希望这次帽子里也有兔子。”
参议院将于周二下午就该法案开始辩论进行测试投票，这需要简单多数。副总统JD·万斯可能需要打破平局才能启动该法案的辩论。
[点击此处下载福克斯新闻应用程序]
[图片4：副总统JD·万斯在白宫西翼行走时使用手机通话]
2026年3月6日，副总统JD·万斯在华盛顿白宫西翼行走时使用手机通话。（亚历克斯·布兰登/美联社照片）
但参议院没有足够的票数像麦康奈尔对最高法院提名人那样废除先例来通过《拯救美国法案》，也没有足够的票数进行全面的“冗长辩论”，从而绕过60票的要求。
如果共和党未能通过《拯救美国法案》，其基本盘可能会对参议院共和党人掀起轩然大波。特朗普目前保持沉默，但也可能在未来进行反击。
查德·佩格拉姆目前担任福克斯新闻频道（FNC）首席国会记者。他于2007年9月加入该网络，常驻华盛顿特区。
President Trump warns he won’t sign other bills until Congress passes SAVE America Act
Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the partial government shutdown entering a second month as lawmakers battle over funding on ‘Fox Report.’
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You’ll hear volumes from congressional Republicans about the importance of passing the SAVE America Act in the coming days. The bill requires proof of citizenship to vote.
“We need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in America,” said Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.
“The SAVE America Act is an important bill,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., on Fox News. “So we’ve got to figure out how to get it passed.”
[TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL FACES GOP RESISTANCE AS TILLIS VOWS TO STOP IT]
[Image 1: Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.]
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said that Senate Democrats wouldn’t take the shutdown seriously until flight delays and cancellations started to stack up.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
And that is the conundrum facing Senate Republicans — figuring out how to get it passed.
The SAVE America Act is the touchstone of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. In fact, the president warned he wouldn’t sign any other bill into law — except perhaps a DHS funding measure — until Congress aligns with his demands.
Republicans agree on the importance of the SAVE America Act, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. is promising everything but passage.
“I will be bringing the SAVE America Act to the floor, and we will be having a full and robust debate,” said Thune.
That’s because Republicans can’t break a Democratic filibuster.
“This is one of the worst things we’ve seen in America in a very long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
[SCHUMER SWINGS AT HEGSETH OVER KING CRAB MEALS FOR THE TROOPS, BUT BIDEN-ERA RECEIPTS SHOW SIMILAR TAB]
[Image 2: Sen. Chuck Schumer]
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on March 5, 2026.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“The real reason this president wants this bill to pass is to reduce the number of people voting in the November election,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Republicans only have 53 votes in the Senate. So some Republicans advocate parliamentary ballistics to obliterate the filibuster.
“I would nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
Cold War rhetoric permeates this entire debate. In fact, conservatives implored Thune to launch a pre-emptive first strike to terminate the filibuster before Democrats again win control of the Senate — be it this fall or a decade from now.
“It’s really about the only way I can see preventing them from nuking the filibuster once they gain the majority in the Senate,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Other Republicans want to force Democrats to filibuster the old-fashioned way — until they’re exhausted.
“They should have to go hold the floor like it used to be in the old days. They can go and talk as much as they want. But sooner or later they’re going to run out of time,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
If everyone finally fades after days or weeks of debate, then the Senate doesn’t need a test vote to break a filibuster — needing 60 yeas. That means they can pass the bill with a simple majority: 51.
Lots of Republican senators are now invoking the 1930s Frank Capra classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” That’s where Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic senator who filibusters until he collapses in the Senate chamber.
“They should have to go out there, hours on end, like a Jimmy Stewart moment,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
But most Republicans reject the Jimmy Stewart approach. They’re not so much worried about unlimited debate during a talking filibuster, but the unlimited amendment process.
“The talking filibuster, I think will be a goat rodeo. I mean, it could take two or three weeks. The Democrats will tee up all kinds of problematic votes,” predicted a skeptical Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “I haven’t had anybody describe to me the project plan. Here are the number of days. This is how we counter people. We’ve got all of our political flanks covered. And this is how we succeed at the end.”
But there won’t be an unlimited amendment process. While Thune will allow the debate to go on for a while (Fox is told perhaps a week or more, perhaps around the clock), he will maintain “ball control.” Thune won’t immediately tee up a test vote to end debate, needing 60 yeas. But Thune will immediately block all amendments from both sides.
Like everything on Capitol Hill, it’s about the math. And while there will be a lot of talking about the SAVE Act and the talking filibuster, there’s not enough support on the GOP side of the aisle to unspool the Senate’s filibuster rules and precedents.
“Many of us don’t believe that we should undo the filibuster because it holds the rights of the majority. And one day we’ll be back in the minority,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “It’s a real splitter here.”
Capito added that there was a “will” to deal with the SAVE America Act. But the parliamentary machinations it would take to blow up the filibuster to pass the bill do not exist.
“There’s not enough numbers to get it done,” observed Capito.
Trump and other conservatives are starting to dial up pressure on Thune.
[THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’]
[Image 3: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.]
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that Democrats were continuing their push to keep DHS closed because it was “politically advantageous.”(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“I think he’s a wonderful person. I do,” the president said of the South Dakota Republican on Fox News Radio. “But it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t think he can do it. And that’s bad.”
Despite criticism directed at Thune, some Republicans are defending him.
“It’s not John Thune that’s killing it. It’s members of the Republican Party that are not convinced that a talking filibuster can be used to pass this,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. “It will be an infliction of tremendous delays on other matters before the U.S. Senate without the positive results of passage of the SAVE Act.”
It’s significant that the president has not called out Thune over his reluctance to end the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act. However, Trump routinely demanded that former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., do just that during his first term. The president often lambasted McConnell’s stewardship of the Senate, despite the Kentucky Republican establishing a new precedent to inhibit filibusters of Supreme Court nominees. McConnell’s maneuver on the filibuster assured the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
But so far, no sharp criticism of Thune.
Still, some Republicans believe Senate magic could salvage the SAVE America Act.
“I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out of his hat before,” said Lummis. “And I’m hoping there’s a rabbit in his hat on this one.”
The Senate takes a test vote just to start debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon. That needs a simple majority. It’s possible that Vice President JD Vance may need to break a tie to launch debate on the bill.
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[Image 4: Vice President JD Vance talking on a cell phone while walking toward the West Wing.]
Vice President JD Vance talks on his phone as he walks to the West Wing of the White House, March 6, 2026, in Washington.(Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
But the Senate doesn’t have the votes to blow up the precedents like McConnell did with the Supreme Court in order to pass the SAVE America Act, nor are there the votes to execute a full-blown “talking filibuster,” bypassing the need for 60 yeas.
Consider the firestorm that could rain down on Senate Republicans from their base if the GOP fails to pass the SAVE America Act. Trump has held his tongue so far, but it’s possible there could be recriminations from him, too.
Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.