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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said the House will attempt to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act “one more time” through a budget reconciliation bill.
“The president has that as a top priority, and so do I,” Johnson told Fox News’s Shannon Bream in an interview on Sunday. “We passed it three times in the House. We’re going to try one more time on a budget reconciliation bill, and I think that will be the way to get it through the Senate, and finally, to the president’s desk.”
Johnson defended the House version of the SAVE America Act as the “backbone” of what President Trump is pushing for to pass the Senate.
He said that although a prohibition on mail-in voting with exceptions and other requests made by Trump could be included, the “bigger reach” is to hone the bill to focus on proof of citizenship to register and photo ID before casting a ballot, the core components of the bill.
“That eliminates the problem, all the fraud and everything that everybody’s concerned about in our elections, particularly, frankly, in these blue states,” Johnson said.
The Speaker also addressed Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) vow to rebel against Republican leaders over the bill and pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act. Last month, she blocked a rule vote to allow House business to go forward unless the bill is attached to a larger must-pass piece of legislation, writing on the social platform X, “I don’t care who in this chamber hates me for it.”
“Nobody’s mad at Anna, we all want the same thing,” Johnson said. “She’s a team player, she’s a good friend of mine. We’re going to get this done, and I reminded her when she said herself, you know, we have done this in the House now three times already. We’re going to do it again, and I’m going to put it in a reconciliation bill so that we can get it through the Senate.”
Luna has called for the bill to be added to a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill, or any bill that reauthorizes the nation’s spy powers or another party-line budget reconciliation bill.
The Louisiana Republican added that the impasse in the Senate is getting a majority of votes with only 53 Republicans in the upper chamber.
“There is zero chance, Shannon, that seven Democrats are going to help us on election integrity because, as the president, who says all the time, they count on this,” he added. “I think some of them will allow for some cheating in elections because they can’t win on other policies.”
Democrats have been outspoken in their opposition to the SAVE America Act, with many saying it is a return to Jim Crow laws and warning that it would disenfranchise women, Black and college-age voters.
Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the SAVE America Act is “dead” without enough time to change election laws before the midterms.
“Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater,” Tillis told The News & Observer.”
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Anna Paulina Luna Donald Trump Mike Johnson Shannon Bream Thom TillisCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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