The Senate voted to pass a massive housing legislation package on Thursday, even as the White House has called for the SAVE America Act to be a top legislative priority. Passing with rare bipartisan support, the package of housing bills aims to lower housing costs and codify multiple of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.   “This bill offers real solutions that will unlock new home construction, drive down prices, and increase the supply of affordable homes,” Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the Senate floor earlier this week. Thune announced on the Senate floor Thursday that there will be a vote on the SAVE America Act next week. The package, titled the Housing for the 21st Century Act, passed Thursday afternoon by a vote of 89-10 with one Democrat and nine Republicans opposing.  The legislation would work to remove regulations that advocacy groups say in sum account for roughly 25% of building costs. The legislation would also work to streamline the building process to make home purchases more realistic and affordable. Housing BillDownload The 10 who voted against the package included one Democrat, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and nine Republicans: Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina; Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Ted Cruz of Texas; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; Mike Lee of Utah; Rand Paul of Kentucky; Rick Scott of Florida; Tommy Tuberville of Alabama; and Todd Young of Indiana. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., did not vote. In an election year, both parties have prioritized affordability, especially housing affordability, in their messaging. The Senate-passed package moves to the House and includes 18 bills already passed in the lower chamber’s original package. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Politico this week that the chamber will address housing affordability issues, but added it is “not going to be the way the Senate is going to send it over to the House.”   The package includes legislation codifying Trump’s executive order banning large institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, as well as protecting personal privacy by blocking the development of a central bank digital currency.  What works in Washington may not work in Greenwood, South Carolina.The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cuts red tape, increases housing supply, and lowers costs so more people can achieve their version of the American Dream. pic.twitter.com/O8iWg3rwpR— Senator Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) March 12, 2026 Even though Trump said he would not sign anything Congress sends him until they pass the SAVE America Act, the Executive Office of the President put out a statement of policy support on March 2.   “The Administration strongly supports passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” the letter said. “If the Senate Amendment to H.R. 6644 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign it into law,” it concluded.   The post Senate Passes Bipartisan Housing Package as SAVE Act Pressure Builds appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The 70th session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) opened in New York on March 9. However, a parallel event, the Conference on the State of Women and Family (CSWF) is being hosted this week by a coalition of pro-family organizations urging a return to the fundamentals the UN commission seems to have forgotten.    What is CSWF?  CSWF was founded by pro-family non-governmental organizations seeking to change the culture of the Commission on the Status of Women. They’re advocating a shift to a focus on marriage, family, children, the unborn, and faith.  Grace Melton, senior associate for international social issues at The Heritage Foundation’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing, told The Daily Signal of her aims for CSWF.  “I would like for attendees who come to the CSWF from CSW to realize that the dominant narratives from CSW—that women need unlimited abortion and sexual rights to achieve gender equality; that “transwomen” are women; that conservatives and people who hold traditional religious beliefs are against women’s rights—are false,” she said.  What is UN Commission on the Status of Women?  The UN Women website states that the priority theme for CSW70 is: “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.”  Their Political Declaration is an annual document in which CSW member states detail their shared commitments.  In 2025, the United States informed the UN that it was withdrawing from CSW membership. In its statement, the U.S. said that while the Trump administration appreciated the declaration’s focus on protecting human rights and preventing violence against women and girls, the lack of “precise terminology” prompted the decision.   The administration said it “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”  Gender Ideology Panel  This year’s CSWF event is a two-day program featuring networking opportunities, expert presentations, and themes centered on pro-life and pro-family issues, in contrast to the UN gathering.  Melton said, “The UN Commission on the Status of Women is organizing itself this year around the theme of access to justice for women and girls. But gender ideology pervades the UN system, and it causes significant harm to women and girls.”  Indeed, the website for CSW70 puts “gender equity” front and center, ahead of women’s rights. Melton served as moderator for the CSFW panel “Gender Ideology: Injustice for Women,” which featured speakers Camille Kiefel, Amie Ichikawa, Paula Scanlan, and “Billboard Chris” Elston.  From left, “Billboard Chris” Elston, Paula Scanlan, Amie Ichikawa, Camille Kiefel, and Grace Melton participate in the CSFW panel titled “Gender Ideology: Injustice for Women.” (Photo: Emma Bacon) Elston is a Canadian activist known for his work against gender-transition medical interventions for minors. He said he works to raise attention to what he considers the “greatest child abuse scandal in the history of modern medicine,” and argued that society does not have “gender identity,” but two sexes.  Scanlan, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer, shared her experience competing on the same team as Lia Thomas, a male who identifies as female. She said her and her teammates were pressured by the administration to stay silent about their concerns. Officials compared their discomfort with sharing a locker room to segregation in the 1960s.  “We have gotten so far away from protecting the people we are actually supposed to protect in this world,” Scanlan said.  Ichikawa is a formerly incarcerated advocate who described the injustices she witnessed within the prison system. She noted that men were able to transfer into women’s prison if they identified as transgender.   She said, “I saw this as a female human rights crisis from day one.”  Kiefel, a detransitioner, shared her personal experience being drawn into gender-identity ideologies. She described the psychological and physical harms she endured and said, “other women and girls who have been harmed by transition deserve the same,” after reporting about the result of her case against the doctors who assisted in her gender transition.    The post Inside CSWF: Pro-Family Conference Offers Alternative to UN’s Women’s Agenda  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Florida Senate passed voter ID legislation Thursday, sending the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk, as the SAVE America Act stalls in the U.S. Senate. SB 1334, a bill to strengthen the verification process for voters’ citizenship status, passed the Sunshine State’s Senate 27-12, fulfilling the prediction of Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia earlier Thursday. The bill had passed the Florida House, 83-21, in February. “These new laws will further help protect the ballot box,” Jeremy Redfern, deputy chief of staff to Florida AG James Uthmeier, told The Daily Signal. “We thank the Florida Legislature for being champions of election integrity and look forward to this legislation hitting Governor DeSantis’ desk for his signature.” The bill will require voters to verify their citizenship with a photo identification card and require the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to note the citizenship status of drivers who receive new identification. Prior to the vote, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in a social media post that he will sign the bill into law. “Although Florida has already enacted much of what the federal legislation contemplates, this will further fortify our state as the leader in election integrity,” DeSantis wrote on X. The Florida version of the SAVE Act is about to pass the Legislature. Although Florida has already enacted much of what the federal legislation contemplates, this will further fortify our state as the leader in election integrity. https://t.co/Jvj0bKwH8q— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) March 12, 2026 Republican State Rep. David Borrero told The Daily Signal that he refers to SB 1334 as the “SAVE Act,” like the national legislation, “because it helps save our democratic elections.” “Requiring proof of citizenship ensures that voters are actually eligible to vote. Our system cannot be hijacked by non-citizens,” Borrero added. Borrero attacked the 31 Democrats who voted against the bill in the state House. “Clearly, it’s because they want illegals to vote in our elections,” he charged. “They are very weak on illegal immigrants; they incentivize it.” The legislation, if signed into law, will take effect in January 2027. Both Borrero and Ingoglia said there is no excuse for Republicans in the federal government to fail to pass voter ID when Florida passed the bill so efficiently. “I agree with this 110%,” Borrero said. “Our entire U.S. Constitution relies on a system where only citizens vote. We cannot allow foreign nationals to hijack that system. This bill is needed to combat illegal voting all across the country, especially in states like California and New Jersey.” Borrero added that the bill is “so commonsense, that it wasn’t necessary before. But since the Left is so radicalized, we need to implement this now.” During his press conference, Ingoglia issued similar remarks, adding that there is “zero reason” for a Republican-controlled Congress to be unable to pass “a very much needed piece of legislation.” The SAVE America Act, which has been championed by President Donald Trump and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives three times since 2024, continues to stall in the Senate, allegedly over bipartisan opposition. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate next week, but a source familiar with the matter previously told The Daily Signal the vote will be considered a “show vote.” “I can confirm, it looks like Thune is planning to bring it to a vote next week as a show vote,” the source said. “Despite outrage from GOP voters and the specific request of the president, he is not planning on pursuing a standing filibuster or any other method to actually pass the bill.” A standing filibuster would bypass the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation and allow the legislation to pass with just 50 votes. There are currently 53 Republicans in the Senate. The Daily Signal reached out to Florida state Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for comment, but neither responded by publication time. The post Florida Passes Voter ID Bill as National SAVE Act Stalls appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. There’s a lot of talk about a Make America Great split among Trump supporters, and this originated here in context with the Iranian war. I’m speaking on a Monday, the 10th day of the war. And there’s talk in the air that the MAGA base may desert Donald Trump because, after all, MAGA’s credo was no optional wars in the Middle East. That came out of a disgust with the 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan and the skedaddle from Kabul that left billions of dollars of weapons, and, of course, the 8,000-plus dead and more casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan war. But this is different. This war is only conducted by air, and there’s certain characteristics of it that we haven’t seen before. It’s a top-down war. We are targeting the leaders, not the military rank and file. We have been taking out, along with the Israelis, 50, 60, a hundred scientists, generals, mullahs, political leaders to decapitate, not try to organically destroy the entire Iranian military. Second, they were all part of negotiations. We were negotiating with Iran and gave them a lot of options. Just don’t fund your terrorist proxies. Don’t create a bomb, knock it off. And they didn’t want to do it. It’s just like the prior Iran strike last year where we gave them another option. It’s very different. You can’t really change a regime, we’re told, if you don’t have ground troops. But maybe there’s something different about the modern age with the sophisticated satellite imagery and reconnaissance, that you know where individual people are by their GPS footprint, by their cell phone communications. And then you couple that with these highly sophisticated missiles and drones where you can actually take something through a window and dispatch somebody at a meeting. We’ve never quite seen that before. So you don’t really need a sniper to take out a toxic Hitlerian type of leader. The other thing is that Donald Trump pretty much knows there’s three alternatives that we’ve talked about before. And none of them really require ground troops. The most desirable obviously would be to get an interim government, maybe former dissidents, get expatriates back, depose the mullahs so that there are—or people in the army, depose them, and then you have elections. That would be wonderful, with the problem solved. Or you could find somebody within the apparatus, the theocracy that was a dissident and felt that he had military backing, and he would, you know, pick the Venezuela solution. Sort of what we see in Venezuela. We’re not going to nation-build. The worst scenario is not all that bad. We say stew in your own juice. You know, we mow the lawn and we can do it anytime we want. We can come back in and destroy your new navy, your new missiles as long as we have a president, post-Trump, who’s willing to do that and ensure that they don’t become nuclear again, or they don’t build another missile fleet. And that’s reflected, getting back to my original point, in the MAGA so-called dissidents. If you look at polls, and there were some released by CNN, Donald Trump has 87% support among Republicans. That is much higher than Joe Biden had among Democrats or even Barack Obama had among Democrats. And when you look at the MAGA base, the people who identify themselves as Trump Conservatives or Trump MAGA people, the support for the Iran war is over 90%. And now why? How could that be, when they have told us that there’s a widespread civil war among the MAGA people? That’s what the Left is saying. But when you look at the people who are objecting, you know, it’s the Steve Bannon wing, the Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, maybe Megyn Kelly, I don’t know. And they’re saying that this is contrary to the MAGA philosophy of no optional wars. It would be if we insert ground troops, and we’re there for months. I mean, if we end up bombing, as Barack Obama did, in Libya for seven months without congressional authority, one of the last things he did while in office was to bomb Libya, then that would be another matter. But nobody has ever seen a war in which one side destroyed the entire air force of the enemy, the entire navy of the enemy, and has got pretty much 90% of its ballistic missile arsenal nullified and probably 85% of the drones and decapitated the entire command and control of the military. And now is looking at secondary targets where maybe Revolutionary Guard headquarters and regional areas, but there hasn’t really been any American losses of equipment. We’ve had, tragically, seven people killed. But tragically and terribly as that is, in a war of 10 days with being that kinetic, it’s very rare to see such few casualties. I mean, we’re looking at the Ukraine war. There’s been 1,200,000 Russians killed and probably another two million wounded, probably three or 400,000 Ukrainians. So this isn’t comparable to what we’ve seen. And I think the president understands that there is a deadline. And the deadline is going to be met. And the deadline consists of we do not want this war to drag on with the midterms coming up. And he wants to pivot back to the economy. And the people on the MAGA base who are saying that the party is split in two, they don’t really have a constituency, as the polls, I just told you, illustrate. They’re loud, they have audiences, and they make points that, you know, you can consider. But they don’t represent a constituency, at least not yet. On the other side, this sort of, on-to-Cuba, Lindsey Graham wing of the party, I think that after Venezuela, which we didn’t lose anybody. We lost some wounded people that were hurt, but we have a Venezuela solution of a strong person there that will be an improvement over Maduro and might lead to elections. But we’re not going to go on the ground and insist that we’re going to create Carmel, California, in Venezuela. And we have, as I said earlier, three choices and they’re all preferable to what’s there now in Iran, how the war in Iran ends. And so, after that, I think the president will say, I’m going to concentrate on making sure that the Western Hemisphere is free, and it’s not captive to the cartels, and it doesn’t kill Americans. And obviously Cuba might be a concern, but there’s no need now to go into Cuba or to bomb Cuba to do any of that. It’s falling. It’s dying on the vine. And the more pressure we apply, insidiously so, not kinetic or dramatic, it’ll soon, I think, deteriorate to a point where there’ll be a change of government. But that’s something in the future. Right now, I think the MAGA base and the Republicans are sticking with Trump because they don’t see oil prices spiking. They don’t see the economy in danger, and they don’t see the war dragging on for months and months like the Libyan fiasco or the misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. What we’re looking at instead, I think, is a spectacular achievement of getting rid of the two worst governments that we were dealing with in Venezuela. And if we don’t get rid of the one in Iran, at least it’s neutered or nullified so it doesn’t have the clout to subsidize terrorists, and it doesn’t have the wherewithal to threaten us or our allies in Europe, in the Middle East. More importantly, the Gulf States are now openly hostile or at war with Iran, and they will not be subsidizing Hamas or Hezbollah or the Houthis, to the same degree they were in the past, and Iran won’t be doing it at all. I think people have absorbed that, and now it’s time, I think, to think of the midterms and if they can, they being the Trump people, can overturn the historical trends that the in party usually loses the first midterm, dramatically loses seats in the House and Senate. And maybe they can avoid that by having good economic news. And with the deregulation, the tax cuts, the energy development, the foreign investment, the interest rates coming down. I think there’s a good chance by June or July, as I’ve said earlier, the economy will be strong and he can point to the foreign policy successes, and that is reflected in the overwhelming support that the recent polls show for the Trump agenda. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post A MAGA Split Over Iran? What MAGA Split? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Amid uncertainty in a vital global shipping lane brought on by the conflict with Iran, gas pump prices are way up. Some in Congress think that could be a problem for their constituents and for Republicans’ chances in the midterms. “Naturally, we’re all really concerned,” Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., told The Daily Signal of the gas prices.  Nevertheless, Justice framed it as part of the cost of taking on Iran. “We know we’ve got a big-time threat with Iran,” Justice said. “What are we going to do, just say ‘it’s okay, you go on and do what you’re going to do?’ We can’t do that.” “It creates a pressure, but gas prices were a lot higher under Biden,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told The Daily Signal, adding, “This is at least [high] gas prices caused by a worthy goal.” Uncertainty Gas prices have surged as Iran has attacked oil tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. According to the International Energy Agency, “around 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade” passes through the strait. As of Thursday, the average price per gallon of gas at the pump is $3.59 in the United States, per AAA. One month ago, the average price was $2.94. The highest recorded average price of regular unleaded gasoline was over five dollars in June 2022. In response, President Donald Trump is tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an underground emergency stockpile. "Every day, enormous progress is made," says @SecretaryWright on Operation Epic Fury."We're destroying their ability to threaten the United States troops in the region… and ultimately, to threaten energy markets." pic.twitter.com/IGZwj2hsGT— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 12, 2026 White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Daily Signal in a statement that Trump “will not allow the terrorist Iranian regime to threaten the American people or disrupt the global economy by stopping the free flow of energy.” She added, “President Trump has been clear that these are short-term disruptions and that Americans will see oil and gas prices drop rapidly again once the necessary objectives of Operation Epic Fury have been achieved and the regime’s capabilities are neutralized.” Midterms The gas prices have provoked some grumbling from Capitol Hill Republicans, especially ahead of midterm elections in which both sides are claiming to offer an “affordable” future for voters. “High oil prices will be a problem,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said of the midterms in a recent Fox News interview. “If you add in high gas prices, high oil prices … if there’s still kinetic action that causes oil to be over a hundred dollars [per barrel], I think you’re going to see a disastrous election.” Rogers told The Daily Signal of the midterms, “President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican party, and he is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress to continue delivering wins for the American people.” Should Congress Intervene? Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who believes the United States military should “wrap up” soon in Iran, thinks Congress ought to intervene on behalf of consumers. “I’m concerned about gas prices. Of course, you know, the Congress, we could do something about that,” he told The Daily Signal.  “We can suspend the gas tax, which is like 20 cents a gallon. That would account for a large portion of the increase over the last week.”  Democrat Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have a bill to institute a federal gas tax holiday, suspending the 18.4 cent per gallon tax until October. “Families across Arizona are dealing with high costs on almost everything, and now gas prices are skyrocketing because Donald Trump started a war with Iran,” Kelly said in a statement in support of bill.  “Arizona families shouldn’t pay the price for Donald Trump’s bad decisions. Suspending the federal gas tax would help bring prices down.”  Rand Paul: "The 2026 elections, already we are behind the 8 ball. If you add in high gas prices, high oil prices, and if we're still bombing Iran with kinetic action — people don't want to call it war — I think you're gonna see a disastrous election." pic.twitter.com/lILcS0TUaa— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2026 Johnson expressed openness to the idea but similarly indicated it would not be a silver bullet to undo the gas price hike. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that,” he told The Daily Signal. “It’s not going to do a whole lot, because state taxes are a lot more onerous than federal taxes. I mean, check with California.” Justice was similarly skeptical a gas tax holiday would be of much help. “That’s like kissing your sister. I mean, that’s not going to really help, and that’s not going to really do anything in life,” he told The Daily Signal. “That’s a Band-Aid for cancer.” Justice did not rule out supporting such a measure, but said if “the straits get blocked, we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg as for what’s going to happen. This could go really high.” Voters “are really hurting,” Justice added. “We should always be really compassionate.” “If we don’t hear them, [it’s a] mistake. We’ve got a midterm to consider. It’s right at our doorstep here.” The post Dire Straits for Midterms? Gas Price Surge Troubles Senators appeared first on The Daily Signal.