Sen. Cornyn: Why the SAVE Act matters more than the filibuster

If a man takes a swing at you and barely misses, that doesn’t make him a pacifist — it just means he has bad aim.

Standing still and giving him a second free swing wouldn’t be wise or honorable; it would be foolish.

In 2022, Chuck Schumer and 47 other Senate Democrats tried to change the rules of the US Senate and “nuke” the filibuster to ram through a left-wing takeover of election laws.

They were just barely stopped by two holdout Democrats who were promptly driven out of their party and into retirement.

In 2024, Schumer confirmed to reporters that Democrats mean to finish the job and kill the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold the next time they take the majority. 

For many years, I believed that if the US Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain.

My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies.

But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.

Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security and hurt the American people — all to spite President Donald Trump.

But they say openly that if these same rules ever get in Democrats’ way, they won’t hesitate to rip them up.

A rule is only a rule if both sides follow it.

I believe that Democrats, with their votes and statements, have already dealt the filibuster a fatal blow: The Senate rules will change eventually, whether Republicans like it or not.

This leaves conservatives with two options.

We can either unilaterally disarm, or we can stand and fight.

We can let the Democrats keep obstructing today and then smash the rules the first chance they get, or we can act now and use the mandate the American people gave this president and this Congress to secure our elections, protect our homeland and bring back common sense.

The answer is clear: We need to stand, fight and win.

Democrats started this fight. Now Republicans should finish it. 

When 48 Democrats nearly killed the filibuster, it was to pass radical legislation designed to increase election fraud.

They tried to ban voter ID requirements, to decriminalize ballot harvesting, and even to send taxpayer dollars into Democrats’ own campaign funds.

The SAVE America Act, which I’ve cosponsored, would do the opposite.

It would make it easy to vote but harder to cheat, by requiring proof of citizenship and voter ID.

These basic, commonsense protections are massively popular with the American people — and the fact that the radical left apparently sees them as such a threat to their chances in November truly gives their game away.

The president has made the SAVE America Act his “number one priority,” and he is right.

But it’s also urgent to overcome other aspects of the far left’s obstruction.

Americans are being forced to wait in line for three hours at airport security checkpoints because the Democrats are blocking funding for homeland security and immigration law enforcement.

Bad enough that Democrats’ political tantrum is ruining travelers’ days — but at this time of hostilities with Iran, their financial siege of DHS is not just inconvenient, it’s dangerous. 

Texans don’t need more endless discussions over Washington rules that Democrats have already promised to break. Talk is cheap.

They need leaders who get results.

And results are exactly what I have been proud to help President Trump deliver during both of his terms.

I’ve partnered with the president to cut taxes for working families, rebuild our military, stop inflation, transform the courts and secure our border.

Now this success story needs its next chapter.

After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and homeland security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature.

This could be a “talking filibuster” that removes the obstructionists’ free pass and makes them defend their indefensible views on the Senate floor, or it could be a different reform.

Process matters, but outcomes matter more: The Democrats’ assault on election integrity and national security must be stopped.

Leadership means upholding core principles and applying them thoughtfully as circumstances change.

I spent years defending the filibuster because the 60-vote threshold was a net benefit to Texas and our nation.

Before moderate Democrats went extinct, the rules worked.

But as President Abraham Lincoln once warned Congress, “the dogmas of the quiet past” can become “inadequate to the stormy present.”

The Democrats’ recklessness and radicalism have changed the landscape.

On these critical issues, at this critical hour, the old procedures no longer align with the core American principles we must defend.

It is time for our Senate Republican Conference, led by our strong and strategic Majority Leader John Thune, to retake the initiative, rebuild momentum and get results.

I respectfully urge the remaining handful of my Republican colleagues still holding on to the old position that I used to share to reassess the new reality and update their thinking.

We should use the authority the voters have entrusted in us to pass the SAVE America Act, fund homeland security, and bring the far left’s obstruction to an end.

John Cornyn represents Texas in the US Senate.