House set to vote as GOP leaders hope NDAA, SAVE America Act gambit unlocks floor

House House set to vote as GOP leaders hope NDAA, SAVE America Act gambit unlocks floor Comments: by Emily Brooks - 06/30/26 11:40 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Emily Brooks - 06/30/26 11:40 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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House Republican leaders on Tuesday afternoon will find out whether their plan to tie the annual defense authorization bill to a voter ID bill pushed by President Trump will be enough to satisfy hardline GOP members who ground the House to a halt last week.

The chamber is scheduled to vote at 1:30 p.m. on a procedural rule to tee up a vote on the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That rule would tie the NDAA to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and voter ID to cast a ballot, and send them to the Senate as a single package.

While the House has passed the SAVE America Act multiple times, hardline Republicans had derailed House action last week as they and Trump called on the Senate to pass the voting bill. The gambit to tie the SAVE America Act to the NDAA is an attempt to prevent the issue from similarly halting this week’s work.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday said that the plan to merge the bills is “the most efficient, effective way to do it.”

“There’s no need to add an amendment to the NDAA. Let’s just have the full bill that’s still sitting there and has been transmitted to the Senate, let’s send it again. Let’s put it as part of something that we hope and believe will be a bipartisan vote in both chambers,” Johnson said.

“And maybe the SAVE Act makes it through in that vehicle,” Johnson said, adding that he would “pass the SAVE America Act every day in the House if I thought it would do any good.”

Some Republican members, though, said that the plan will not be enough for them to vote for the rule.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who had advocated for adding the voting bill to the NDAA as an amendment, said on X that the plan “would still allow the Senate to strip out either or.”

“The only way to ensure the Senate passes this is to make sure it’s in the bill text of the NDAA, meaning that my amendment(s) must be made an order,” Luna said.

Contrary to Luna’s post, though, the Senate would still be able to remove any SAVE America Act provision even if it was in the base text of the NDAA the House passed.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) also said he is not likely to support the rule. And Johnson acknowledged that Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) could be a problem for the vote as he aimed to use the NDAA as a vehicle to restore terminated Delphi retiree pensions, but said that Turner’s proposal faced a point of order problem because “it was appropriating on an authorizing measure.”

In another potential complication, the House-passed bill that would be attached to the NDAA does not include limitations on mail-in ballots, one of President Trump’s major demands.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, however, signaled that they are happy with the plan to link the NDAA to the SAVE America Act and would support the rule. Those members had helped hold up action in the House last week over the issue.

“We also need to add the SAVE Act to the transportation bill and every other bill that comes out of this House. In fact, I think we should probably add it to every appropriation bill too. I think that is appropriate,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.).

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, projected confidence that the rule would pass Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m not worried about anything. I’m not worried about the SAVE Act,” Rogers said, saying he thinks the NDAA will get out of the House. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t go up on the floor later today and make the debate.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said that there is no path to pass the SAVE America Act through the Senate, where 60 votes is required to advance most legislation, and that there is not sufficient support in the Senate GOP to upend the traditions and of the upper chamber to do so.

Add as preferred source on Google Tags Andrew Clyde Anna Paulina Luna John Thune Mike Johnson Mike Rogers Mike Turner Tim Burchett

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