Speaker Mike Johnson attached the election measure to a $95 billion reconciliation package, but Republicans remain divided over mail-in voting restrictions, Senate rules and whether the proposal can survive without Sen. Lindsey Graham’s leadership.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
House Speaker Mike Johnson is preparing to bring the SAVE Act to a final House vote Thursday after incorporating the election legislation into a third budget reconciliation package, but the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham has added uncertainty to its prospects in the Senate.
Johnson, R-La., faced intense pressure from President Donald Trump to advance the measure, which would require proof of citizenship and photo identification for voter registration and would restrict most mail-in voting.
A House committee is expected to complete its review and amendment process Thursday before the full chamber votes on the proposal ahead of lawmakers’ departure from Washington for the weekend.
Johnson attached the SAVE Act provisions to a $95 billion budget reconciliation measure that funds the Pentagon. The legislative text includes $10 billion for the House Administration Committee to distribute as grants to states that implement the act.
The speaker also reached an agreement with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who had previously blocked House floor activity in an effort to force the Senate to vote on the legislation.
Although the House is expected to approve the bill, Senate Republicans face procedural and political obstacles that existed before Graham’s death and may now be more difficult to overcome.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Graham had been uniquely positioned to guide the legislation through the upper chamber because he chaired the Senate Budget Committee and strongly supported the SAVE Act.
Trump said Graham told him hours before his death, “We’re all set” for the legislation.
Tuberville said Graham would have continued Johnson’s strategy of keeping the SAVE Act attached to the reconciliation package and pressing for its approval in the Senate.
“Lindsey’s smart. He understood it. He understood that we didn’t,” Tuberville said. “President Trump kind of leaned on Lindsey on this. ‘Say, Lindsey, you got to get this in. You’ve got to get into reconciliation. You got to push this.’”
Budget reconciliation allows qualifying legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes generally required for most bills. The Senate parliamentarian, however, must determine whether the SAVE Act complies with the Byrd rule, which limits reconciliation provisions to matters sufficiently connected to federal spending or revenue.
Graham had also introduced the Election Security Partnership Act, a proposal designed to encourage states through federal funding to remove noncitizens from voter registration lists.
Graham’s sister was sworn into the Senate on Tuesday to complete the remainder of his term, allowing Republicans to retain the seat and its vote. Tuberville said the party nevertheless lost a senator with an unusual ability to negotiate privately with Democrats.
“You know they dislike President Trump so much that they won’t even discuss any kind of bill we’re putting on the floor, but Lindsey could at least get them to talk, and he was kind of the person that would try to get people to go our way,” Tuberville said.
Tuberville, another outspoken supporter of the SAVE Act, argued that Congress must enact the measure because of alleged illegal voting.
He claimed that “probably five, maybe six senators” elected in 2020 “shouldn’t be here” because ballot boxes were “stuffed.”
Tuberville also cited remarks attributed to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, described in the provided material as a New York Democrat, who told supporters that the act would make it “hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election.”
“She spoke the truth out loud for once,” Tuberville said. “They know that if they have to have an ID to vote, they’re going to lose a lot of seats.”
The SAVE Act has cleared the House three times previously but stalled each time in the Senate.
Republicans currently hold 53 Senate seats. Under the chamber’s usual 60-vote threshold, the party would need support from seven Democrats to advance the legislation.
Attaching the proposal to reconciliation is intended to allow passage with 51 votes, but Republican support has not been unanimous.
In June, 49 Republican senators voted for the bill while four opposed adding the SAVE Act to the reconciliation package: Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Their concerns included the proposed restrictions on mail-in voting and whether the election provisions would violate the Byrd rule, potentially allowing the Senate parliamentarian to remove them from the reconciliation bill.
The legislation’s attempt to prohibit most mail-in voting has become one of the central points of disagreement within the Republican conference. Although the bill would include limited exceptions, some lawmakers have questioned both the policy and whether it can properly be treated as a budgetary provision.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has declined to change Senate rules to lower the general legislative threshold from 60 votes to 51.
Trump has repeatedly pressed Thune and other Republicans to eliminate or weaken the 60-vote requirement, warning that Democrats would make such a change after regaining control of the chamber.
Trump also refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill approved by Congress, using the veto as a protest against the Senate’s failure to pass the SAVE Act.
Johnson’s decision to incorporate the measure into the Pentagon funding package represents the latest effort to overcome the Senate blockade and fulfill Trump’s demand for election legislation.
The $10 billion grant provision could provide a stronger budgetary connection by directing federal funds to states that establish the citizenship and voter identification requirements contained in the act.
Whether that funding structure will satisfy the Byrd rule remains unresolved and will depend heavily on the Senate parliamentarian’s determination.
Graham’s death leaves Republicans without the Budget Committee chairman who had been expected to structure and defend the reconciliation strategy.
Tuberville said Senate Republicans would continue pursuing the measure despite the loss.
The former college football coach said “there are no timeouts in life” and acknowledged that the legislative process would continue even as lawmakers mourned Graham.
“And you know up here, you know we’ll continue to go,” Tuberville said. “You can’t stop things. Things are going to keep going no matter what happens. So we’ll regroup and try to continue on, but he’ll be desperately definitely missed.”
The House vote would mark another victory for supporters of the SAVE Act, but its future remains dependent on Republican unity, the reconciliation process and the parliamentarian’s ruling.
Even with control of both chambers, the party must either keep the proposal inside the budget package or find seven Democratic votes under regular Senate procedure.
Graham’s replacement preserves the Republican vote count, but Tuberville said the party cannot easily replace his ability to manage the Budget Committee, negotiate with Democrats and coordinate directly with Trump.
The legislation is therefore approaching likely House passage while facing the same Senate barriers that defeated it three times before, now without the senator who had been expected to lead its final push.
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