Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., took to Newsmax on Monday to call on the handful of his fellow recalcitrant Republicans in the upper chamber to end the tradition of the filibuster so Congress can pass the SAVE America Act, which deals with elections.
On "Rob Schmitt Tonight," the first-term senator and celebrated former college football coach of Mississippi, Auburn, Texas Tech, and Cincinnati railed against the two-century-old tradition originally designed to allow endless debate.
The procedure has evolved into requiring 60 votes to pass any legislation.
"If we don't pass this, we'll never have another secure election in this country because we'll [Republicans will] never have any kind of majority again," Tuberville said. "It's just amazing to me how we're letting this opportunity pass us by.
"But we got about four or five Republicans that just refused to bust the filibuster."
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, now referred to as the SAVE America Act, would require photo identification for voters and proof of U.S. citizenship for registration, among other integrity elements.
Democrats have criticized the measure and have used the filibuster in the Senate to prevent a vote on the bill. Republicans make up 53 members of the Senate, while there are 45 Democrats and two independents who routinely vote with them.
With only a three-vote majority, Republicans would need almost all members to end the tradition, and Tuberville said that "four or five" have refused to do so.
Retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina has said he will not vote to end the filibuster.
"I would imagine that a lot of it has to do with Trump Derangement Syndrome," Tuberville said, offering a reason for not ending the filibuster. "They just don't like him at the end of the day.
"And you know, you are who you are. But as I tell people, I represent the people of Alabama; I don't represent myself.
"And the other one is I keep hearing about the tradition of the Senate that we're different from the House. Yeah. We're different. We don't get anything done."
Tuberville also said that Congress could also pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been blocked by Senate Democrats over a dispute with Trump administration policies and enforcement methods employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to remove illegal immigrants from the country.
"So, you know, we can sit around here all day long and talk about what's going to happen, but we might as well go home because with 60 votes, these Democrats are not going to vote for anything for the American people," he said. "They're going to vote for themselves. And their power is all they want."
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