A top Republican proponent of legislation that would codify same-sex marriage protections said Thursday that the Senate won’t move on the bill until after the midterm elections.

Senator Rob Portman backed the Respect for Marriage Act alongside GOP lawmaker Susan Collins.

“We have listened to our colleagues, and we have made certain changes on the religious-liberty front, which have, I think have been very positive in terms of getting them on board,” Portman told Fox News. “But colleagues need a little more time to digest it, which is understandable, and some of the language was still being worked on as of this morning.”

He said he anticipated that the parties would be more likely to rally around the bill once the dust settles after November. Both Republicans and Democrats have escalated their midterm strategies, with the Biden administration lately beating the drum that MAGA Trump supporters are one of the most dangerous political forces to American democracy.

“The possibility of a stronger bipartisan vote after the election seems to me to be likely,” he said.

In July, the measure passed the House with every Democrat and 47 Republicans voting in favor. The legislation would formally repeal the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and was overturned by the 2015 Obergefell Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationally.

The chamber is reportedly deliberating an amendment to the bill that would prevent infringements on religious liberties and ensure it would not legalize polygamous marriages. Collins told Fox News that she’s confident that “this bill is going to pass,” suggesting that more GOP support is expected as negotiations continue.

The initiative to enshrine same-sex marriage rights was prompted by a paragraph of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that argued that the bench should scrutinize Obergefell and substantive due process in a similar way it did the Roe precedent.

Other Republicans suggest they don’t want to pick the same-sex marriage battle before the midterms, feeling that it’s a settled matter because of the Obergefell ruling. “The court decision stands,” Senator Lindsey Graham, who just proposed a federal prohibition on abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, told the network. “I think this is all politics.”