Republican Senate Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pushed back Thursday after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump wants the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act, known as the SAVE America Act, passed before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess.

At her Thursday press conference, Leavitt said Trump’s “patience is running out” and argued that the Senate should act after the House advanced the measure.

“The House did its job,” Leavitt said. “The Senate needs to do its job, too.”

Speaking later with reporters, Thune responded by saying the White House should help secure the votes needed to move the bill.

“Well, maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right?” Thune said.

The legislation faces a procedural hurdle in the Senate. To pass the voter restrictions, supporters would need to overcome a filibuster with 60 votes or eliminate the filibuster entirely. Republicans hold 53 seats in the chamber.

Mary Margaret Olohan, a White House correspondent for the Daily Wire, cited Thune in an X post and said the bill currently has support from about 50 of the 53 Republican senators. That vote count means Trump would need Democratic support to advance the measure unless Senate rules were changed, even though Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.

That procedural math is central to the dispute between the White House and Senate Republicans. A House-passed bill can still stall in the Senate if it lacks the votes needed to advance under the chamber’s rules, and a narrow Senate majority does not by itself guarantee passage of legislation subject to the filibuster.

Thune said the White House should focus its criticism on Democrats, not Republicans, because Democrats are threatening to block the measure through the filibuster.

“Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats,” Thune said. “And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to ‘yes.’”

House Republicans attached the legislation to a budget bill. The Senate parliamentarian had said the SAVE America Act could not be attached to a funding bill, but House Republicans found another route. The House bill includes $10 billion in funding that would provide financial incentives for states to comply with parts of the SAVE America Act. The funding mechanism would not, however, make the SAVE America Act itself law.

A budget bill can pass the Senate without the 60-vote threshold required to break a filibuster. But the reconciliation process used for budget bills is limited by Senate rules, which is why the parliamentarian’s rulings matter when lawmakers try to include broader policy measures in funding legislation.

House Republicans also attached a portion of the SAVE America Act to a proposed ban on members of Congress trading stocks.

According to the voting rights site Democracy Docket, “Despite Republican control of the Senate, it is unlikely that Trump will see any version of SAVE enacted ahead of the midterms. Legislation passed through reconciliation must be budgetary in nature. The Senate parliamentarian, the chamber’s procedural umpire, ruled last month that the SAVE America provisions did not fit the bill, leading Trump to call for her ouster.”

Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio asked Thune why the White House would criticize him in that manner and whether he believed the White House was positioning him as the person to blame for 2026 election failures, according to Desiderio’s X post.

“I wish I had a good answer for that,” Thune said.