House Republicans muscled through a spending bill Wednesday that bundles restrictive voting legislation with federal appropriations, escalating their effort to satisfy Donald Trump's demand for nationwide voting curbs despite zero path to Senate passage.
The maneuver marks the latest chapter in a months-long push to pass the Save America Act, which would eliminate mail-in voting and require new voter identification at registration and polling places. Republicans framed the measure as essential to block noncitizens from voting and reduce fraud, while Democrats argue there is no evidence of widespread election tampering and warn the bill would strip voting rights from eligible citizens before November's midterm elections.
The House passed the combined package 217-209 Wednesday afternoon, largely along party lines. The Save America Act sailed through the House in February but has never had realistic Senate prospects, where Democrats control enough votes to filibuster it into oblivion.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wasted no time signaling defeat before the House even voted. "The Save America Act is dead on arrival here in the Senate," he said, vowing Democrats would block what he called "the old ghost of Jim Crow" no matter how Republicans repackaged it.
Trump has made passage a personal crusade, weaponizing his agenda to force Republican hands. He tied the bill's approval to renewal of an expiring foreign surveillance law and refused to sign a bipartisan federal housing measure as punishment for the lack of progress on voting restrictions. The housing bill became law without his signature last week.
The pressure campaign worked. Conservative House Republicans had essentially shut down the chamber's floor late last month by opposing routine procedural votes. They relented this week after Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to attach Save America to spending legislation that typically draws bipartisan support but now risks triggering a government shutdown if Republicans refuse to strip the voting bill before passage.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the Florida Republican who spearheaded the floor blockade, has already drawn a line in the sand. She warned Senate Republicans they would face primary challenges and state party censure if they remove Save America from the spending bill. "His state party should censure him and/or he should be primaried if he wants to betray his constituents," Luna said of any Senate Republican who attempts to salvage the appropriations measure by dropping the voting restrictions.
The strategy puts the Senate in an impossible position: let a government shutdown loom, or buck Trump on his signature legislative demand. Majority Leader John Thune faces particular scrutiny after he previously opened debate on Save America under Trump pressure, only to watch Democrats block it effortlessly.
Author James Rodriguez: "Republicans are gambling that Trump's grip on their party is strong enough to force a shutdown over voting rules nobody outside the MAGA base cares about, and they might be right."
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