The Shadow
During the recent government funding debate, conservatives have rallied around an election integrity bill to secure American federal elections.
In 2025, the House of Representatives passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
The SAVE Act, which I helped report from the Committee on House Administration, requires states to obtain proof of citizenship when registering voters.
The bill garnered bipartisan support!
Unfortunately, this essential legislation has gone nowhere in the Senate.
The reason?
The modern filibuster/cloture rule!
In many columns, I have shared my deep exasperation with this rule. With limited exceptions, the modern filibuster requires 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to end debate on a measure and prompt a vote on the legislation.
As a result, most bills that passed the House will not even get a vote!
I have long believed this violates the original intention of basing the legislature on the principles of majority rule. This practice allows Senators to hide their positions behind a curtain of anonymity.
Because of this, many bills that pass the House are automatically “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
Therefore, lawmakers who try to serve the will of voters are stymied from doing so. It contributes to government gridlock.
Late in 2025, Senate Democrats used the modern filibuster for seemingly partisan reasons.
With the help of the filibuster, Democratic senators refused to fund the U.S. Government. Their actions threw the U.S. government into a shutdown for a record 43 days!
The 2025 long shutdown, in which one Democratic lawmaker characterized the American people’s pain and suffering as ‘leverage’, caused harm to numerous programs that support Virginia communities.
This shutdown episode further illustrated the threats that the filibuster poses to governance, federal programs and our communities. Government funding will continue to be a routine bargaining chip as long as the modern filibuster rule stays intact.
However, thanks to a renewed push to pass voting integrity measures, the Senate is engaged in fresh discussions on returning the filibuster to its historical form.
That is, where senators actually show up for debate.
The House recently advanced a new bill that is a beefed-up version of the SAVE Act.
The SAVE America Act, of which I am a co-sponsor, not only requires individuals to submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote in a federal election. The bill also mandates those who vote in a federal election must present photo ID.
Voter ID is hardly controversial.
According to different polls from Gallup and Pew Research Center, more than 80% of American citizens support photo ID to vote!
Republicans know these commonsense election reforms need to pass, which is why Republican lawmakers in both chambers are aggressively pushing Senate leadership to amend the filibuster rule.
The main reform under consideration is adopting a “standing” or “talking” filibuster rule.
Under this reform, any senator seeking to block legislation would have to do so by actively holding the floor to protest the bill.
In this scenario, any senator could talk on the floor indefinitely to block a vote. Senators would be forced to go on the record and make their arguments to the American people!
This is how the Senate was supposed to function.
As soon as a senator’s protest on the floor ends, the filibuster rule no longer stands in the way. Accordingly, the chamber could move forward with a vote on the bill.
This was the common practice until the new rule was adopted in the Senate. You may remember seeing it in action during the famous Jimmy Stewart film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
However, the Senate changed this tradition in the 1970s, allowing senators to hide behind closed doors as they place a unanimous hold on any legislation they dislike.
Senators would be shielded from having to explain tough votes to their constituents!
While a shift towards the “standing” or “talking” filibuster would not stop lawmakers from debating any bills, this important reform empowers the Senate to move forward with the business of the American people.
If the Senate follows through on this proposal, Republicans will move to enact commonsense voter ID reforms.
With support from elected officials and the American public, I am hopeful that the Senate moves to enact this critical institutional reform, restore proper debate in the U.S. Senate and vote on the SAVE America Act.
I will continue to urge the Senate to abandon the modern filibuster/cloture “hide behind the curtain” rule.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov/. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
