Senate Republicans have sidelined the SAVE America Act, arguing that it shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the party’s priority list, especially amid the Iran war and growing economic woes.

Republican leaders this week were forced to remove the proposal as pending business in the chamber as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution. That effectively benched the bill — which has been championed by President Donald Trump and considered a top agenda item — after an extensive pressure campaign by conservative members and influencers.

The necessary move, however, was greeted with a sigh of relief by a number of Republicans who, while supportive of the measure, believe it’s time to move on to more pressing matters. They also believe the pro-SAVE America Act blitz, led by Sen. Mike Lee and like-minded conservatives, did little to help the case, and may have backfired. Members are ready to bid it adieu as they near the final six months before the midterms.

“They’ve convinced themselves that the longer it hangs around, the more popular it gets. The reality is — I’m quite certain they haven’t gained a single vote, and may have lost a few with time,” one Senate Republican told NOTUS. “There’s some things that aren’t possible, and this is one of them.”

The member noted that while key parts of the bill — which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote — poll well with wide swaths of Americans, including Democrats, it is hardly considered a leading issue for voters.

“When put in a lineup of the top 100 things people are thinking about every day, it doesn’t get very high on the list,” the senator continued. “We’re spending a lot of the precious resource of time and energy on something that’s not top-of-mind awareness to voters.”

Polling suggests as much. A CNN survey taken in late March found that only 2% cited voting and elections as the most important issue facing the country, with scores of other topics dwarfing it related to the economy, foreign policy and immigration.

Adding to the calculus is what Senate Majority Leader John Thune and others have indicated in the past: that there is no path for the bill to pass. Lee and conservatives have been loudly beating the drums for months for the chamber to scrap the 60-vote requirement in favor of a “talking filibuster,” a tactic that requires senators to talk continuously in order to block or delay a vote.

That idea does not have anywhere close to enough support. That was shown to be the case in the wee hours of Thursday morning when four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis — sided with Democrats on an amendment that would have added parts of the voting bill to the narrow border-security measure Republican leaders are trying to pass via budget reconciliation.

All four are staunch filibuster supporters and are against watering it down to deal with the voting bill.

It’s a major blow to Lee, who’s led the proverbial charge on the right in support of the measure. The Utah senator has largely campaigned for it via his X feed, which has featured frequent posts and selfie videos of him calling for the elimination of the filibuster with missives about those not willing to go to those lengths.

But after more than a month on the bill, Lee has signaled frustration. He posted on X last week that the chamber’s consideration of the bill was “not working,” all the while reiterating his desire to scrap the 60-vote threshold.

But those antics are growing tiresome with his colleagues.

“It’s gotten to the point of being beyond annoying. They’re just sad,” one Senate Republican said. “First of all, how do you have the time to do all of this? And how is this a priority in a serious institution of intellects discussing big stuff?”

A second Senate Republican was equally dismissive, noting that Lee’s free-flowing posts come every “25 seconds.”

“I think maybe the realization that we don’t have the votes for this is finally sinking in,” the second Republican said. “I feel like [the pressure campaign] has sort of dissipated. … Maybe people are tiring of it — all except for [Lee] and a few others. Even the president hasn’t been talking about it as much.”

By contrast, Lee is normally mum on the topic during weekly Senate Republican Conference luncheons. Multiple members told NOTUS that the voting bill did not even come up during Tuesday’s policy luncheon or the Wednesday lunch that’s hosted by the GOP Steering Committee.

What did, however, was a lengthy discussion about the filibuster. That led Thune to urge members to tamp down the chatter about scrapping it and to redirect the fire toward the other side of the aisle, two sources said.

The majority leader has consistently pressed that there are not the votes to do away with the filibuster — something he’s had to tell Trump repeatedly in recent weeks.

Thune was noncommittal about the possibility of bringing up the SAVE America Act when asked earlier in the week. He cited the need to pass the budget resolution and a reauthorization of a key intelligence bill that is due to expire at the end of the month.

“If we don’t have other pressing stuff in front of us that has to get done and has a short timeline associated with it, then we’ll see about getting back on it,” he said.

Lee and other conservatives have indicated they are hopeful the voting bill will come back up for consideration.

“It’s not on the floor right now, but we’re gonna get back to it,” Lee told NOTUS earlier in the week.

“I understand there are some things that because of their emergent nature or because of their privileged status, sometimes they have to get put to the front line,” he told the Deseret News. But nobody has said we’re not doing [SAVE America], and I don’t think anyone should expect that we’re not doing it.”

A Lee spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about senators’ concerns about the bill’s impact on the chamber’s agenda and criticisms about his social media postings.

Some Republican colleagues thought there was some merit in the more than a month the chamber spent on the measure. They pointed specifically to the pair of amendments where Democrats voted en masse against parts of the bill, including one standalone item that would have required voters present photo ID in order to cast a ballot.

However, some in the conference are not anxious for it to return to the floor in the near term.

“That horse has left the barn,” a third Republican member said.