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With November’s midterm elections just months away, Republicans think they have found the key to passing President Donald Trump’s long-stalled top election priority.
The House on Wednesday unveiled a draft framework for a third shot at budget reconciliation, the party-line process that Republicans successfully used to ram through Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” and a separate $72 billion package funding immigration enforcement for years to come.
The latest $95 billion package is expected to focus on defense funding, farm assistance and the SAVE America Act. While specific details are still being negotiated, several sources familiar with Republicans’ planning told Fox News Digital that it won’t actually be the SAVE America Act tucked into the package.
Instead, a $10 billion pot of money included in the budget blueprint released Wednesday is expected to incentivize states to adopt parts of the original SAVE America Act — first passed by the House earlier this year — to help cover implementation costs.
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Policies under consideration include grant funding to help states enforce voter ID requirements and encouraging states to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to REAL IDs, sources told Fox News Digital.
The early deliberations come as pressure mounts from Trump and vocal proponents of the SAVE America Act, both within Congress and online, who are demanding the Senate do whatever it takes to pass the bill.
Senate Republicans have struggled for months to get the stalled election measure across the finish line, which Trump has labeled his top legislative priority.
“The pressure’s gonna be on the Senate,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., a member of the House Budget Committee, told Fox News Digital.
“Certain senators are gonna have to find a real come-to-Jesus moment to pass the strongest reconciliation package possible,” he continued.
The budget blueprint’s design could help overcome hurdles in the Senate, where the strict Byrd Rule governs what can survive in budget reconciliation. Senate Republicans have acknowledged that the SAVE America Act, as written, likely wouldn’t pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, who wields an outsize role over the process.
But adding in a grant-like component rather than shoehorning in the entire bill could be the difference maker in the upper chamber, the sources said.
“If this provision is written the right way — tied to states that already have voter ID on the books, not a new federal enforcement — I believe it can survive reconciliation’s rules,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and a member of the Senate Budget Committee, told Fox News Digital.
“But I’m not satisfied with a Band-Aid. We need Democrats and every Republican to actually vote yes on voter ID, on proof of citizenship, and on real guardrails for mail-in ballots,” he continued. “Kansans deserve election integrity, and I’m going to keep fighting until we get it done.”
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That grant program would allow states to opt in to adopting the SAVE America Act, which has so far failed to pass the upper chamber, where Democrats and a cohort of Republicans have blocked it.
Meanwhile, the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal election law, has been tasked with crafting the guardrails for the plan and has until Sept. 11 to get it done.
The budget blueprint is the first step in the complex budget reconciliation process, which allows Republicans to steer around Democratic opposition and pass a forthcoming bill with only GOP votes.
The framework faces an uphill battle in the House chamber, where various corners of the Republican conference have expressed skepticism.
The House Budget Committee is expected to mark up the budget blueprint on Thursday, and GOP leaders are aiming to hold a chamber-wide floor vote by the end of next week.
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Asked about some Republicans calling the budget blueprint “dead on arrival,” Johnson told Fox News, “We’ll get it done.”
Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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