Editors at National Review Online offer President Donald Trump unsolicited advice.
As we have previously editorialized, we support the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which serves important national security functions, and oppose the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, which (while pursuing noble policy goals by mostly prudent ends) intrudes upon the power of states to run elections. So, it should come as no surprise that we think it a bad idea for President Trump to insist that he will not support Section 702 renewal unless it has the SAVE America Act attached.
Pushing to attach controversial legislation to a must-pass bill with bipartisan support is hardball. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t happen, but we have no illusions that the sausage will always be made in a decorous fashion. Our objections are not to the tactic itself, but to how this is apt to play out.
Start with the good news. The silver lining to this effort is that what Trump is doing doesn’t require changing the rules by which laws are made in America. Our largest objection to the campaign for the SAVE America Act has been that its proponents demand the rewriting or outright abolition of the Senate filibuster in order to pass a comparatively marginal improvement in the security of American elections. By altering his tactics, Trump is implicitly conceding that this is not going to happen. That is welcome.
Success is another story. This tactic is much likelier to sink Section 702 renewal than it is to get anything enacted on election law, a subject where partisan divides are deepest. Democrats simply aren’t going to budge on the SAVE America Act. That’s the trouble with including poison pills in bills you actually want to see passed. In fact, Republicans in both the House and Senate are balking at this approach — and the last thing Republicans need ahead of the midterm elections is a losing battle that divides the party and leads to the president scapegoating people in tight reelection battles.
