Congress Continues to Thwart Trump

The SAVE America Act fails to pass, there’s no funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and there are increasing questions about the war against Iran.

The two main priorities of the White House at the beginning of 2026 — passing the so-called SAVE America Act and securing funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — have been put on hold indefinitely.

The SAVE America Act consists of two parts: reforms to electoral procedures (in particular, the mandatory presentation of documents when voting, proof of citizenship for voter registration, and a significant reduction in mail voting, etc.) and a ban on transgender abuses. The second part is completely rejected by Democrats and they demand significant cuts to the first part. And while Republicans in the House of Representatives can pass the bill with a simple majority vote, in the Senate a qualified majority of 60 votes is required, which cannot be achieved without the participation of Democrats. The bill that was adopted does not require a Photo ID and limits mail voting to cases of military service or illness. Republicans tried to introduce an amendment about Photo ID, but it was not put to a vote because it did not receive 60 votes, only 52. Trump urged Republicans to pass the law through the so-called “talking filibuster”, but Republican senators considered this procedure too time-consuming and refused to comply.

Meanwhile, the shutdown of a single ministry — the DHS — continues. It includes several agencies: the notorious ICE, the border patrol, FEMA (analogous to our Emergency Situations Ministry), and the coast guard, as well as transport security. As a result, a real chaos has ensued at US airports. Democrats are ready to open funding for the DHS, but without ICE and the border patrol, or to carry out a significant reform of ICE that would seriously reduce its powers. Mainstream Republican senators have made it clear that they are ready to pass the DHS budget without ICE and the border service, but conservatives in both houses have made it clear that they are not ready to vote for the DHS budget in this form. It’s impossible to fully pass the DHS budget without the consent of at least a few Democrats. Recently, the bill only garnered 53 votes out of the required 60.

In addition, there is growing dissatisfaction among Republican lawmakers with the war against Iran.

They are primarily dissatisfied with the lack of answers to two main questions: why the war started and what its ultimate goals are. They consider the White House administration’s responses too evasive and vague. Meanwhile, Trump has just over a month left to end the war, after which Congress’s approval will be required. Moreover, the additional $200 billion requested by the Pentagon to continue the military operation against the Islamic Republic also raises questions, for the same reasons.

So far, Donald Trump has only announced that he is ready to declare a federal emergency and use it to open funding for the Transportation Security Administration, but this decree has not yet been signed.