Hardliners grind House agenda to a halt over SAVE America Act demands

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A group of conservative hard-liners have effectively ground most House floor action to a halt until Congress acts on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, delivering a new challenge for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as he tries to move the chamber’s legislative agenda forward.

The SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and the presentation of a photo ID to cast a ballot, has passed the House but stalled in the Senate over Democratic opposition.

President Trump has repeatedly demanded congressional leaders find a way to pass the measure, and on Wednesday he canceled a signing ceremony for a widely popular bipartisan housing package, vowing he won’t put his signature on the legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act.

Several hard-liners in the House, meanwhile, said they would oppose any procedural rules, effectively blocking debate and a final vote on measures, until the SAVE America Act passes. Johnson needs near-unanimous GOP support on any procedural rule, given the razor-thin margin in the lower chamber.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on the social platform X Thursday that she will “not be voting to re-open the floor until the Senate gets back to Washington.” The Senate left for a two-week recess on Wednesday.

“The Senate is literally running and not ONE senator objected to going on vacation before 4th of July. John Thune is running and hiding because he doesn’t want to get voter ID across the finish line,” she added.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, said in a press briefing Thursday that Trump did the right thing by not signing the housing bill. He added, “I personally think we should not have any more legislation until the Senate comes back in session, and they’re out for two weeks, ironically.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters on Wednesday he’d be a “little more amenable” to supporting a procedural rule if he sees movement on other bills — such as a GOP border bill or a stock trading ban — that have also been top priorities of his.

“If I see movement on something else, I might give on the other. If we can’t get SAVE America done, but we can get like a vote on H.R. 2 … which we’re supposed to get, by the way,” Roy said, referring to the Secure the Border Act. “If we can get some movement on stock trading, which I’m not seeing movement on, these are all things I want to see movement on. Well, now I’m a little more amenable.”

House GOP leaders scrapped a vote on a procedural rule on Wednesday amid hard-liner opposition. They have only voted on measures Johnson has brought to the floor under a fast-track process called suspension of the rules, which requires two-thirds majority support for passage.

The House was poised to advance two appropriations bills this week through regular order, but action on those measures have been punted after leaders canceled Friday votes. The gridlock is also throwing other GOP priorities off course, including a renewal of the government’s warrantless surveillance authorities and a third budget reconciliation package.

Trump and congressional conservatives have argued that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) should eliminate the filibuster or use a talking filibuster to move the SAVE America Act through the Senate. The process would force Democrats to speak continuously on the Senate floor to delay the bill. In such a scenario, Republicans could pass the measure with 51 votes if Democrats ceded the floor.

“The only question before us right now is whether the Senate will put America first or continue to put the Senate first. That’s what the question is. We’re trying to say that the Senate needs to move forward and to force this through using all of the tools at their disposal, and to stop hiding behind fake thresholds that the Senate itself has put in place,” Roy, the policy chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said during the press conference.

But Thune has opted against using such a procedure, saying there are not enough GOP votes to alter the filibuster rule.

Johnson said during a press conference on Wednesday that he spoke to Trump in a phone call about how reconciliation — a special process in which Republicans can bypass a filibuster in the Senate — is the only path forward on the SAVE America Act. As part of that effort, the Speaker proposed creating a grant program in Republicans’ next reconciliation package that would establish a federal fund for states to tap to implement provisions of the SAVE America Act.

But Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said during the Thursday presser that the grant program would merely be on an incentive basis.

“The blue states won’t opt into that. They will opt out if needed and will not touch that grant money,” Boebert argued.

Luna also rebuffed the idea.

“Attach SAVE America to FISA or NDAA,” the Florida lawmaker wrote on social media, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“Suggesting Reconciliation is an insult to our intelligence, everyone knows that will NEVER work. If @SpeakerJohnson wants us to open the House floor these are the only options,” she added.

Johnson is slated to meet with Trump late Wednesday to discuss a way out of the gridlock in the House.

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Anna Paulina Luna

Chip Roy

John Thune

Lauren Boebert

Mike Johnson

Ralph Norman

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