LINCOLN — Nebraska’s two Republican U.S. senators might be split on weakening the Senate filibuster as Senate leadership tries to cool down calls to nuke the upper chamber’s legislative brakes using a procedural move to temporarily lower the voting threshold.
A staffer for U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told the Examiner he would support utilizing the “talking filibuster” to pass the “SAVE America Act,” a GOP-led election overhaul that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, a change some worry could make voting harder for some people who are legally registered.
The move could put Ricketts at odds with his own party’s Senate leadership on the issue, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D, has already decided to move forward without the maneuver.
President Donald Trump has mounted a months-long pressure campaign to pass the “SAVE America Act.” The bill passed the House last month with all three Nebraska House members, all Republicans, voting yes.
Trump-aligned social media influencers and some harder-line congressional Republicans have been trying to convince Thune, and other senators to work around the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes and bipartisan support to overcome.
One way some have pitched is for Thune to require a “talking filibuster,” which would require Senate Democrats to speak on the floor to block consideration of the bill, thereby lowering the threshold to a simple majority because it requires the minority party to have enough members on the floor for a quorum instead of relying on a 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture.
The Senate Democratic caucus has 47 members.
Trump said earlier this week that passing the Save America Act should be the GOP’s “No. 1 priority,” saying “it will guarantee the midterms.” Also, Trump has threatened not to sign other bills until it is passed.
Thune has tried pouring cold water on the idea of the “talking filibuster,” saying the votes aren’t there to shift to that approach. Thune expects to bring the Save America Act to the Senate floor next week for a vote without the procedural move.
One GOP senator has described the online rhetoric encouraging senators to force the use of the “talking filibuster” to Politico as “bull$#!%.”
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Ricketts had previously defended the Senate’s more modest filibustering tradition, telling Omaha CBS affiliate KMTV last year that “the filibuster rule is what makes the Senate the Senate” during last year’s federal government shutdown.
“[It] preserves and protects the minority … while Republicans are in the majority right now … we have been in the past the minority party and will be again in the future at some point,” Ricketts said at the time, “[the filibuster] has been an institutional part of who the Senate is.”
The “SAVE America Act” would require people to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote and implement a national requirement for photo ID. Nebraskans passed a state constitutional amendment in 2022 requiring the Legislature to implement voter ID. Federal law already requires voters to be U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections.
The federal proposal also would require states to submit voter data to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, a system that checks for noncitizens and would, under the proposal, give the federal government greater influence on state voter rolls. Today, maintenance of voter rolls is handled by states.
The SAVE database has made numerous mistakes, according to a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said, “The Republican Conference is working towards a full understanding of what is involved here and how the process will work. What is certain is that we will put Democrats on the record against voter ID and continue working to make sure only American citizens vote in American elections.”
Fischer, like Ricketts, defended the typical 60-vote legislative filibuster during the Biden administration, saying, “Nebraskans understand the importance of consensus building. In the state Unicameral, a two-thirds vote is required to end a filibuster,” Fischer said on the Senate floor. “Not the simple majority … the Nebraska way works.”
A conservative news outlet, the Washington Examiner, had reported last year that Fischer might be open to weakening the Senate filibuster. Both Fischer and Ricketts have since expressed support for the “SAVE America Act.”
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