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President Donald Trump is throwing his weight behind House GOP leaders’ latest gambit to pass the SAVE America Act as some fiscal hawks are skeptical of the bill’s increase to federal spending while the national debt balloons to $39.5 trillion.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is spearheading an effort to pass elements of the election integrity bill through the budget reconciliation process, which would sidestep the need for Democratic support in the Senate in order to get the bill to Trump’s desk.
The legislation would also add some $73 billion in national security spending as the war between the U.S. and Iran continues after multiple stalled attempts at peace talks.
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“The fact that there is no payfor and no language defunding Planned Parenthood is enough for me to vote no,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital on Monday. “I am open to a dialogue with the administration on how we can ensure that the SAVE language is solid and what we might be able to do with stopping abortions by mail.”
Trump took to Truth Social to personally thank Johnson and House Budget Committee members for their work cobbling together the new reconciliation bill, which would include $95 billion in new government spending through 2036.
“I am asking all House Republicans to VOTE YES this week on the Budget Resolution, which is an important first step towards getting a Budget Bill. House Republicans must UNIFY, and fight for THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!” Trump posted.
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He argued the legislation would “get AS MUCH of THE SAVE AMERICA ACT as possible in a Budget Bill, along with aid to our incredible Farmers, and funding for our Military.”
The bill, which was rolled out last week, is known as a budget “framework” setting rules for how much money the relevant congressional committees must spend. The details of exactly where the money will go will be determined in the coming weeks by lawmakers on those committees, before those details are patched back together into a massive piece of legislation.
But the framework does not currently have any spending cuts written into it, which immediately raised alarms for conservatives who are wary of additional government spending without cuts to offset it, also called payfors.
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Reps. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital they were both concerned about the lack of payfors before Trump’s post but left the door open on whether they would ultimately support the bill.
Burchett predicted the legislation would be sent to the Senate, where SAVE America Act elements would be stripped from the bill before it is returned to the House.
“Then I’ll probably vote no,” he added afterward. He did not immediately answer a follow-up question about whether he supports the original iteration of the bill.
A source familiar with thinking by the conservative House Freedom Caucus left the door open to the group backing the budget framework, but with the caveat that the full SAVE America Act is included in the final legislation.
“The SAVE America Act is our top priority — the president wants it done. Mandatory voter ID and proof of citizenship through reconciliation would be a game-changer for this country. But any watered-down version that makes SAVE policies optional? There will be issues,” the source told Fox News Digital.
A senior House GOP aide said, “We can’t spend years warning about our fiscal crisis and then abandon payfors the moment they’re politically inconvenient. Americans are tired of the all-hat, no-cattle approach to fiscal responsibility.”
But some House Freedom Caucus members are supportive of the chosen path, like Budget Committee member Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., who told Fox News Digital, “As a fiscal hawk I understand the apprehension of not having a clear payfor in sight, but as an American, I know it is even more irresponsible to have business as usual elections without the security the SAVE America Act will create.”
The SAVE America Act — which would create a federal voter ID standard and mandate proof of citizenship in the voter registration process, among other elements — passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, where at least some Democrats would be needed to advance the bill to final passage.
Democrats have argued the bill is tantamount to voter suppression.
House GOP leaders are now pushing to pass elements of the SAVE America Act in the wider reconciliation bill to sidestep that opposition. Budget reconciliation only requires a simple majority to pass in the Senate, lining it up with the House’s own threshold.
But that comes with strict rules on what is permissible to include in a budget reconciliation bill, which has traditionally been left up to the discretion of the Senate parliamentarian — a nonpartisan congressional staffer tasked with making those decisions based on the chamber’s existing rules.
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