President Trump and some of his MAGA allies in the House are ramping up their tactics to advance the GOP’s stalled election integrity bill and effectively shutting down Congress in the process.
The tension over the Senate’s inability to pass the SAVE America Act exploded this week as Mr. Trump refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill without the election measure passing, and a band of House GOP rebels blocked the chamber from considering other legislation.
“This is the No. 1 most important issue in the country. The American people want it, and we’re not budging until we get it,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican.
The House-passed version of the SAVE America Act would require individuals to show proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.
“We passed it three times. I don’t understand what the problem is,” Rep. David Joyce, Ohio Republican, said, noting his colleagues blocking the House from taking up other GOP priorities are “showboating.”
Amid the turmoil, both the Senate and House left Washington earlier than scheduled this week.
“This isn’t really newsworthy,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told reporters as he left the Capitol on Thursday after having to cancel votes on several bills his chamber was scheduled to take up this week.
He was on his way to a meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House to figure out how to get things back on track, but played it off as a consensus-building effort that he must deal with every day, given Republicans’ historically small majority.
“We passed the SAVE Act three times in the House. We’ll do it again,” the speaker said. “We’re working on that, and I’m going to talk with the president about these issues and how to get the agenda moving again.”
Mr. Johnson told reporters afterward that the hours-long meeting was “very productive.”
“We’re on exactly the same page,” he said, noting the president “wants to ensure that we stop any blockade in the House.”
“House Republicans should unify,” Mr. Trump posted on social media after the meeting, urging against the hardline tactics some had deployed to press for his number one priority. “Giving power to the Radical Left Dumocrats in the House to control what goes up for a Vote will make our outcomes worse, not better. No more grandstanding, please!”
Mr. Trump’s advice contradicts his own actions in which he has blocked Republican legislative priorities, including canceling a scheduled bill signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing deal White House aides helped secure.
Congress first needed to pass the “desperately needed SAVE America Act,” Mr. Trump said.
After he met with the president, Mr. Johnson said he is transmitting the housing bill to the White House, which will begin a 10-day clock for Mr. Trump to either sign or veto it, or do nothing and let it automatically become law.
Mr. Trump has also said he would not sign an extension of a foreign surveillance law without the election bill. That law, an authority the government uses to spy on foreign targets’ communications without a warrant in an effort to thwart terrorist attacks and drug trafficking, remains expired.
The president lunched with Senate Republicans at the Capitol on Wednesday and appealed for them to pass the SAVE America Act, either by blowing up the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to end debate or using a talking filibuster to get around it.
GOP leaders and senators did not push back in the meeting, but most still maintain that neither of those is a feasible option, and that the president’s preferred version of the SAVE America Act does not have enough votes to pass with even a simple majority.
Mr. Trump has pushed to expand the House-passed bill with bans on universal mail-in voting, transgender “mutilation” surgeries on minors and biological men from playing in women’s sports.
The mail-in voting ban is opposed by some Republicans whose states use it, and does not have enough support to pass either chamber.
Mr. Johnson has been pitching the president and his conference on trying a different tactic to pass portions of the SAVE America Act through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package.
It would require a significant restructuring of the bill to comply with the Senate rules for that process, which mandate that any policy changes in a reconciliation bill must have a significant budget impact.
“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,” he said. “We’re willing to invest heavily in that.”
Mr. Trump, asked on Wednesday whether he would consider that compromise approach, said, “No, not really.”
The president views the election-related mandates as a “national emergency” needed to prevent Democrats from rigging the midterm elections.
Neither Mr. Johnson nor Mr. Trump addressed the path forward for enacting the bill after their meeting on Thursday.
Mr. Johnson does not even have the support of several House Republicans for the idea of transforming the SAVE America Act into a grant program.
“The blue states won’t opt into that. They will opt out if needed, and will not touch that grant money,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican.
Ms. Luna said she and the other Republicans blocking other legislation from moving want GOP leaders to attach the SAVE America Act to a must-pass bill, such as the annual defense authorization bill the House is supposed to take up next week.
That may not be enough for House Freedom Caucus members who are aiding in the blockade for additional reasons – namely forcing Mr. Johnson to follow through on his promises to hold votes on a border security package and a permanent central digital bank currency ban.
“We’re moving legislation that, frankly, isn’t worth it, like the housing bill or bloated other bills. Let’s move the stuff the American people want,” Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy said.
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