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Speaker Johnson says he will push SAVE America Act through reconciliation 3.0

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday he aims to introduce the Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act through a third budget reconciliation bill.

Johnson’s remarks came shortly after President Trump canceled a signing ceremony on a comprehensive bipartisan housing package and said he would not sign the legislation until the Senate passes the voter ID bill. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and identification to vote.

The bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate, where Democrats vowed to oppose it and fell short of the votes needed to overcome the filibuster. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) has repeatedly rejected Trump’s calls to eliminate or reform the filibuster to pass the bill.

Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday that he had spoken to Trump about how reconciliation, a special process by which Republicans can bypass the filibuster in the Senate, would be the only way to pass the SAVE America Act.

“The only way to do that, I think, because you can never get seven Democrats to join 53 Republicans in the Senate… you have to put it in a reconciliation bill. We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to budget reconciliation and you allow the blue states, if they come to their senses and want to take advantage of election integrity proposals, ideas and policies, they can draw money from a federal fund and use them. We’re willing to invest heavily in that, and House Republicans will come up with a reconciliation bill, reconciliation 3.0, that will do that,” he said. said Johnson.

“I talked to the President in detail about this this morning, as I have in the past, and he said, ‘Can we do this?’ he said. I said, ‘If Republicans stay together, we can do this.’ We’re on the line now to defend it. That’s what we’ll do. ‘I would like to see some progress on this,’ the President said. I said, ‘I’d love to show you this,'” Johnson added.

Johnson is expected to meet with House Republicans on Wednesday about what could be included in the third compromise bill.

But even conservative supporters of the Save America Act have questioned the idea of including it in a reconciliation package.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled earlier this year that it did not meet the requirements to pass with just a 50-vote majority under the Byrd Rule.

“The act of saving America cannot be compromised and I am not drinking the Kool-Aid. Neither should you,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on social platform X on Wednesday.

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