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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said he is aiming to push the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act through a third budget reconciliation bill.
Johnson’s remarks came shortly after President Trump canceled a signing ceremony for a sweeping bipartisan housing package, saying he won’t sign the legislation until the Senate passes the voter ID bill. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and the presentation of an ID to cast a ballot.
The bill passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats have vowed to oppose it, leaving it short of the votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has repeatedly dismissed Trump’s calls to eliminate or reform the filibuster in order to pass the bill.
Johnson said in a Wednesday press briefing that he spoke to Trump about how reconciliation, a special process in which Republicans can bypass the filibuster in the Senate, would be the only way to get the SAVE America Act passed.
“The only path, I think, to get that done, because you’re never going to get seven Democrats to join 53 Republicans in the Senate to do that … you have to put it on a reconciliation bill. We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconciling the budget, and you allow blue states, if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity proposals and ideas and policies, they can draw down from a federal fund, and use those funds. We’re willing to invest heavily in that, and House Republicans will put together a reconciliation bill, reconciliation 3.0, that will have that,” Johnson said.
“I talked the president through that in detail this morning, as I have in the past, and he said, ‘Can we do it?’ I said, ‘We can, if the Republicans will stand together.’ We’re on the line right now to defend it. So that’s what we’re going to do. The president said, ‘I want to see some progress on it.’ I said, ‘I’d love to show it to you,’” Johnson added.
Johnson is expected to hold meetings on Wednesday with House Republicans about what could be included in a third reconciliation bill.
But even conservative supporters of the SAVE America Act have questioned the idea of including it in a reconciliation package.
The Senate parliamentarian earlier this year ruled that it does not meet the requirements under the Byrd Rule to pass with only a 50-vote majority.
“The save America act cannot be placed in reconciliation, and I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid. Neither should you,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote Wednesday on the social platform X.
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