As foreign conflict rages on and Congress is locked in a feud over Homeland Security funding, President Donald Trump is hammering Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, the president thanked elections activist Scott Pressler for explaining in a Fox News interview the importance of passing the legislation and how it can be done without dismantling the filibuster. Passing the SAVE America Act “must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE,” the president said. He vowed not to sign further bills until the SAVE America Act is on his desk.

The president also urged senators not to accept a “watered down” version of the bill, but to ensure that key provisions are included: mandatory photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote, eliminating mail-in ballots except in a few circumstances, and amendments barring biological males from competing in girls’ sports and halting gender transition procedures from being carried out on children. The bill was approved by the House of Representatives early last month.

In the Fox News interview Trump referenced, Pressler touted poll results showing that over 80% of American voters support the election integrity provisions of the SAVE America Act, such as photo ID and proof of citizenship. “When in American history have 84% of Americans ever come together on an issue before?” Pressler asked. He noted that 76% of black voters, 82% of Hispanic voters, 85% of white voters, 95% of Republican voters, and 76% of Democrat voters support the SAVE America Act’s election integrity provisions. “I ask for Senate leadership, I ask for members of Congress — if you want to do right by the American people that duly elected you into the seats that you are in right now, when we gave Republicans the opportunity to lead and be the adults in the room, pass the SAVE America Act into law,” he urged. Pressler also anticipated that passing the bill will likely produce “a surge of voters com[ing] out in the midterm elections.”

“The Republicans MUST DO, with PASSION, and at the expense of everything else, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT — And not the watered down version. This is a Country Defining fight for the Soul of our Nation!” the president said in a Truth Social post last week. He also called on the Senate to “focus on, exclusively if necessary, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!!! It’s what everyone wants!!!” With midterm elections looming, the president has also warned senators that the SAVE America Act is “all people care about!!!”

As noted, the SAVE America Act was passed by the House on February 11, but has been stalled in the Senate for nearly four weeks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-N.D.) has agreed to bring the legislation to the floor for consideration but has yet to schedule a vote. At issue is the filibuster; Senate Democrats have signaled their intention to block the legislation via the filibuster. In recent decades, the “silent filibuster” has become the norm, wherein a senator or party indicates an intention to filibuster, without actually having to filibuster, and the contended bill is simply not brought before the Senate. While Trump and others have suggested eliminating the filibuster entirely in order to push through GOP legislation, others have suggested reverting to the traditional “talking filibuster,” which they admit may be time-consuming but would likely allow Republicans to pass crucial legislation without annihilating Senate traditions and legislative safeguards.

Under traditional Senate rules, the filibuster can be used to delay or prevent the passage of legislation, relying on the Senate’s allowance for unlimited debate. In order to end debate, 60 senators are required to invoke cloture. While the GOP has a majority of 53 in the Senate at present, not all Republican senators have agreed to support the legislation’s passage. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is the clearest example, but others have expressed reluctance to enforce the talking filibuster in order to pass the legislation, claiming that the procedure is too time-consuming.

“The talking filibuster issue is one on which there is not, certainly, a unified Republican conference, and there would have to be,” Thune said after a Senate GOP meeting late last month. “If you go down that path, you’re talking about the need to table what are going to be numerous amendments and an ability to keep 50 Republicans unified, pretty much on every single vote. And there’s just not, there isn’t support for doing that at this point.”