House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act will likely face several political barriers.
Johnson announced his plan to include the SAVE America Act in a budget reconciliation package alongside $350 billion for the Pentagon and other spending priorities. This move would be difficult to achieve since it would aim to bypass the Senate filibuster and require support from House Republican holdouts.
“What we’re planning to do is send over a bill that will be irresistible for any Republican,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Every Republican would vote for that if packaged correctly, and that’s what we’re planning to do right now.”
House Republicans floated the idea of including a $4 billion grant program in the reconciliation package to encourage states to adopt voter identification and check the citizenship of every voter, according to Punchbowl News. It is unclear whether the Senate parliamentarian would approve this measure.
The holdouts would likely demand tens of billions in spending cuts to social programs, which would likely not receive support from moderate Republicans and Democrats ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to Punchbowl News.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared skeptical in June of passing a third reconciliation package, stating it would be a major challenge to pass it through the upper chamber.
Both chambers have limited time to pass major legislation before the midterm elections in November. The House entered an early recess Tuesday after 14 Republicans voted against a procedural vote to debate attaching the SAVE America Act to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna demanded the SAVE America Act be added to the NDAA’s text, while Johnson pushed
Luna argued the “MIRVing” process would allow the Senate to strip out the SAVE America Act entirely, though Johnson argued the upper chamber could also strip it from the NDAA’s text.
Johnson met with President Donald Trump to diffuse the situation with the holdouts Thursday. Trump called on Republicans to unite and not vote against any rules in a Thursday Truth Social post.
The speaker’s version did not include a full ban on mail-in ballots. Trump repeatedly stated that he does not support versions of the SAVE America Act without bans on mail-in ballots. Johnson argued Trump would accept a version of the bill without a ban on mail-in ballots.
The Senate entered recess early on June 25 after Senate Republicans attended a heated lunch with Trump the previous day. Trump pressured the senators to pass the SAVE America Act and railed against the passage of a concurrent Iran war powers resolution. Any senator could have objected to or blocked the adjournment, though no one did.
Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama suggested the Senate should cancel the recess to pass the SAVE America Act. Thune and other Republicans insisted the chamber lacked the necessary votes to pass it.
(DCNF)