GOP plans to wrap SAVE Act in budget bill
By Zachary Schemele
USA today
WASHINGTON - Vice President JD Vance emerged from a July 15 [2026] meeting on Capitol Hill with a clear message: Republicans have a plan for the SAVE America Act.
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Whether that plan is realistic is a different story.
..... Flanked by House Speaker Mike Johnson, the vice president insisted that the White House was supportive of the House speaker's strategy to approve the voting restitution bill, President Donald Trump's top priority. Hours earlier, the GOP-led budget committee released the outline of a roughly $100 billion measure, up to $10 billion of which would be set aside for election-related purposes. The bulk of the money would go to the Pentagon to offset Iran war looses, plus anther $12 billion in farm assistance.
..... "What we're doing with this legislation is getting SAVE America through and, of course, getting some critical support to our troops and to our farmers," Vance told reporters after the hurdle with House Republicans. "We through that this was the best vehicle to accomplish those three things."
..... Yet many other Republicans, even the ones most desperately clamoring fro an election law overhaul, disagree.
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The intra-party disputes - combined with the nature of Johnson's long-shot legislative gambit and a vanishing timeline -are openly dividing the GOP ahead of the midterm elections, And the dysfunction is already jeopardizing other pressing legislative business in the eleventh hour of he 119th Congress, including bipartisan priorities and crucial government funding bills relied on by many Americans.
..... On one end of the spectrum, some House Republicans say GOP leaders aren't going far enough.
..... Because Johnson is trying to pass the legislation as part of a budget bill it's a very different version, the specifics of which haven't even been ironed out. while budget bills only need a simple majority in the senate and therefore can pass along party lines, they're subject to special rules, namely that the must primarily affect fiscal issues. If legislation violates those rules, the Senate has to throw it out.
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Johnson and his leadership counterparts have indicated there are ways to get around that obstacle. Money could potentially be pout toward grants hat incentive states to enact the SAVE America Act's components, which include requiring voter ID and documents proof of citizenship to cast a ballot, as well limits on mail-in voting.
..... So far, the White House has said it's happy with pursuing the water-down measure. But it hasn't been enough to satisfy other Capitol Hill proponents such as Representative Eric Burlison R-Missouri. "It's not enough if it;s weak language," he said. "It's nothing for states of we're just going to throw a few million bucks their way."
..... Johnson has signaled he wants the House to fully pass the budget bill before the chamber is supposed to leave July 22 [2026] for tis August recess.
..... There notable opposition in the Senate, too. Many Republican senators have expressed skepticism that Johnson's version of the bill would survive the chamber's budgetary rules. And even then, it may struggle to get enough votes.