House Speaker Mike Johnson faces Republican pushback over a proposal that could shut down the government over a bill calling for strict proof of citizenship requirements in voter registration.
Johnson indicated during a private call with GOP lawmakers on Wednesday that he would be attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a Republican voter identification bill, to short-term government spending legislation before a potential government shutdown October 1, according to Politico.
Some Republicans on the call reportedly expressed concern that a shutdown caused by the SAVE Act prompting the Democratic-controlled Senate to reject the continuing resolution, or CR, would be a political liability that could damage Republicans in vulnerable House seats just before November’s election.
At least two Republicans who are not in electoral danger have publicly spoken out against the proposal. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who is running for reelection in a deep-red district, and Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale, who is not running for reelection, have both opposed attaching the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is pictured during a Republican news conference in Washington, D.C., on July 9. Johnson has received some pushback from fellow Republicans over a plan to reportedly attach a GOP voting rights bill to short-term funding legislation that would avert a government shutdown.
Anna Rose Layden
In a post and video on X, formerly Twitter, Rosendale called Johnson’s plan an example of a “disingenuous and dishonest messaging bill” that would neither “increase [the SAVE Act’s] chances of passage” nor “reduce our deficit.”
“All this is is a messaging technique and tactic,” Rosendale said. “I won’t participate in that. It’s wrong in trying to get it attached because we know it’s not going to get passed … The SAVE Act and that CR will never get passed together.”
According to an X post from Fox News Digital reporter Liz Elkind, Massie said that he would vote against the funding bill if the SAVE Act is attached. The Kentucky Republican also called the proposal “crap” in a statement to Washington Examiner reporter Cami Mondeaux.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Johnson’s office via email on Wednesday evening.
Other Republicans, including the hard-right Freedom Caucus, have backed attaching the SAVE Act to a CR, despite the resulting funding bill likely being rejected in the Senate. President Joe Biden has also vowed to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
The SAVE Act already passed through the House as a stand-alone bill in June. Five Democrats joined with 216 Republicans to narrowly pass the legislation. It was then promptly ignored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats who control the Senate.
Schumer indicated on Wednesday that he will likely reject any attempt to pass the bill through Congress as part of a CR, telling Fox News Digital that “the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way and that is what has happened every time” after being asked if he would agree to pass the bill as an attachment.
The SAVE Act’s author, Republican Congressman Chip Roy, has touted the bill as a way to “fix this problem” of “illegal aliens” being given “ample opportunities to illegally register to vote in federal elections.”
The bill would require those registering to vote in federal elections to provide identification like a passport, a valid government-issued photo identification card showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the U.S. or a military ID card showing the same.
Other valid forms of government-issued photo identification cards could only be used if presented with documentation like a certified birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a U.S. citizen, a Naturalization Certificate or a Certificate of Citizenship.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or to vote in federal elections, and critics of the measure say that it is intended to suppress the vote by needlessly making it more difficult to register. Lower turnout typically helps Republicans in federal elections.
While rules on registration and voter ID laws vary by state, there is no evidence to substantiate claims of illegal immigrants voting in past federal elections in any significant numbers.
A 2017 study from the Brennan Center for Justice found that among 23.5 million votes tabulated across 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 general election, there were only 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting—around 0.0001 percent.
