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Congressional Republicans have a plan to pass key portions of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act before the end of this year.
The election integrity bill backed by President Donald Trump and fiercely opposed by Democrats has stalled in Congress, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has been reluctant to call it up for a vote, given that it’s all but assured to fail.
At least several Democrats would be needed to reach the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster. But left-wing lawmakers in the House and Senate have panned the legislation as an attempt to sow doubt in U.S. elections at best and voter suppression at worst.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is now pushing Republicans to pass the bill’s main mandates via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party in power to pass sweeping fiscal policy without input from the minority due to its sidelining of the Senate filibuster. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chairman of the Committee on House Administration, is tasked with overseeing how that part of the bill gets done.
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“I’d rather pass the SAVE America Act. But recognizing that the Senate might not be able to get that done with the 60-vote threshold, let’s leverage the parliamentary procedure, bring that threshold down to 50, and get some really commonsense reforms done,” Steil told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I’ve been having great conversations with my colleagues in the administration as well as the Senate.”
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Steil told Fox News Digital that he hoped Congress could pass a reconciliation bill with SAVE America before the November midterm elections, but conceded “the clock is ticking down pretty quickly.”
The budget reconciliation process is a lengthy one, with Republicans having taken roughly half a year to use it to pass Trump’s signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last year. Both the House and Senate must pass budget “frameworks,” with instructions for relevant committees to enact policies that either spend or cut funding to a specified amount.
Those committees pass their portions, then send them back to the House and Senate budget committees to tie them together into one massive bill. Identical bills must pass the House and Senate before getting to Trump’s desk.
Steil’s panel, which has jurisdiction over federal election law, is aiming to include two portions of the original SAVE America Act: a proof of citizenship mandate for the voter registration process, and a nationwide photo ID rule to cast a ballot.
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“The House can go as fast as the Senate. And so the frustration that I and others have is the Senate’s not moving as fast as we would like on this. I actually think there’s 50 votes in the Senate for some of these really commonsense provisions,” Steil said. “I’d like to be sooner rather than later, but I don’t control them.”
Where the process gets even trickier is when the Senate parliamentarian, who is appointed by Senate leadership to help interpret the chamber’s rules, goes through the reconciliation bill draft and weeds out what does not adhere to the process rules. That means anything that does not impact the federal government’s budget, tax policy, or the national debt is generally removed.
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Steil said portions of the SAVE America Act could arguably get through that filtration process by affecting funds going to states via the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a 2002-era election reform law.
“We could free up those funds or enhance those funds for states to do those post-election audits, which is a really important part of election integrity. You can do the same in regards to photo ID,” he said, adding that making Real ID the standard could also effectively impact the citizenship mandate. “Effectively, when an individual gets REAL ID, they’re proving their citizenship.”
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And the Trump administration is behind the push. Earlier this year, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought told Republicans at a lawmaker-only meeting that the White House backed using the reconciliation process for SAVE America and argued it was the best way forward to pass the GOP’s election reforms, multiple people in the room told Fox News Digital.
“The White House is engaged. We’ve had good conversations,” Steil told Fox News Digital.
The House passed its version of the reconciliation bill earlier this summer, a $95 billion budget aimed at replenishing the U.S. military and enhancing election security.
But in the Senate, Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., unveiled his committee’s framework just before the chamber left for the August recess. It’s not clear when it will advance through his panel or get a vote.
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Their legislation calls for up to $150 billion in spending — a significant difference.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged that gap in an interview with Fox News Digital last month.
“I mean, the idea was, in keeping it skinny, is to move it quickly. And so the more you add to it, the more complex it gets, the more in the Senate — not to get too deep in the weeds — but procedurally, it involves more committees of jurisdiction in both bodies. And that’s where things start to get weighted down. So we’re very close to an election, the stakes are very high, the timing is short, and if you’re going to do election integrity measures, you need to do it, like, yesterday,” Johnson said. “We passed the SAVE America Act four times in the House. This is the last best effort to get it through the Senate, so I’m for doing it as quickly as possible.”
Steil said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached.
“I think, broadly, we’re aligned. I think obviously the total numbers are different,” he said. “I think everyone recognizes the importance of making sure that our men and women in uniform have the resources needed to not only defend themselves but to defend our country… And also that we have the resources needed to make sure that we’re protecting our election.”
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