House Passes Budget Bill Without SAVE Act to Keep Government Open
The House passed a bill Wednesday to fund the government until December and removed the proof of citizenship requirement that was in a previous version of the legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R) was steadfast in his support for including the SAVE Act in the budget bill, but after the bill failed to pass the House last week, he removed it.
The SAVE Act would have established a nationwide proof of citizenship requirement, which has become a hot topic in election litigation.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) said Wednesday that he is in support of this bipartisan spending bill and that he hopes the Senate can pass the bill and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk by the end of the day.
“I hope the House will have learned its lesson that once again listening to the hard-right on these vital issues — funding the government [and] avoiding default — cannot lead to anything that is useful or constructive,” Schumer said in his remarks on the Senate floor.
After the bill passes the Senate, Biden will have until midnight on Monday to sign it to prevent a government shutdown.
Previous update, Sept. 19
The U.S. House voted 202-220 to reject a bill that would have funded the government for the next six months and implemented a proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration. Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden were already planning to oppose the bill if it reached them.
This follows House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R) decision to cancel last week’s vote on this bill, citing disagreements among the Republican Party and the need for “coalition building.”
On Tuesday, Johnson announced in a statement that he was rescheduling the vote and pushing the passage of the bill because “Congress has an immediate obligation to do two things: responsibly fund the federal government, and ensure the security of our elections.”
The first half of the bill, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), discusses budgetary issues, but the second half contains the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require anyone registering to vote in federal elections to provide proof of citizenship with documents like a passport or a birth certificate.
This requirement could prevent eligible voters from registering if they don’t have easy access to proof of documents, which would disproportionately affect minority voters.
A spending bill needs to be passed and signed by Biden before midnight on Sept. 30 or the government will shut down, a scenario that Republicans are exploiting to push their narrative about noncitizen voting and sow doubt in the credibility of the 2024 election.
“Instead of working in a bipartisan manner to keep the Government open and provide emergency funding for disaster needs, House Republicans have chosen brinksmanship,” the Biden Administration said in a statement.
Last week, former President Donald Trump told House Republicans they need to shut down the government if they can’t pass a CR that includes the SAVE Act.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Tuesday that the House GOP’s spending bill is too extreme and urged him to work across the aisle to get something done as quickly as possible.
“At this point in the process, the only way we can prevent a harmful government shutdown is by both sides working together to reach a bipartisan agreement,” Schumer said. “That’s the only way.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled a vote on Wednesday on a temporary spending bill that must be approved by Sept. 30 so the federal government doesn’t shut down.
That bill included legislation that House Republicans knew the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House would never go for: the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
“Instead of meeting the security and disaster needs of the Nation, this bill includes unrelated cynical legislation that would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” President Joe Biden’s administration said in a statement this week.
The spending bill, which is called a continuing resolution (CR), would only fund the federal government for the first six months of FY25, which will lead to another scramble to prevent a shutdown at the end of March.
The first half of the 46-page bill discusses budgetary issues, but the second half is the text of the SAVE Act, which would require anyone registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of citizenship, which includes a passport, birth certificate, military ID, naturalization certificates or a government-issued photo ID card.
This bill wouldn’t just prevent noncitizens from voting, it could also stop eligible voters who don’t have easy access to proof of citizenship documents from registering to vote. Minority voters, especially people of color, are the most impacted by this.
Johnson had to nix Wednesday’s vote on the spending bill because multiple Republicans opposed it.
“We’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress with small majorities. That’s what you do,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “People have concerns about all sorts of things. That’s how the process works, and sometimes it takes a little more time.”
It’s unclear exactly what Republicans were opposing. During the House Rules Committee hearing on Monday, multiple concerns were addressed, like whether the spending bill should cover a shorter or longer period of time and if it needs more funding for veterans’ benefits.
However, it seems like the SAVE Act isn’t the issue, since Johnson remained steadfast in his belief that it needs to be in the appropriations bill, and he dismissed any opposition.
“I want any member of Congress in either party to explain to the American people why we should not ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in U.S. elections,” Johnson said to reporters on Wednesday. “It’s the most pressing issue right now.”
At the House Rules Committee hearing early this week, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) and other Democrats criticized the SAVE Act. Leger Fernandez called it the “Save the Election for Republicans bill.”
“What they’re really trying to do with this bill is make it harder for the military, for Native Americans, for women who got divorced to register and vote,” Leger Fernandez said. “At the same time, they are continuing to sow distrust in our elections ahead of November, and they are doing a disservice to democracy when they bring these bills.”
Also, in its statement on the appropriations bill, the Biden administration not only expressed how harmful the SAVE Act is but also how “unnecessary” it is.
“It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines,” the administration said. “This behavior is wrong and the law clearly prohibits it.”
The SAVE Act already passed the House last month, but Republicans say they put in the CR because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hasn’t put the bill up for a vote in the Senate.
“Mr. Schumer refuses to put it on the voting schedule,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said at a committee hearing on Monday. “The CR is considered a must-pass bill at some point, and attaching something like the SAVE Act to it might reinforce with the American people that Congress actually does believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections.”
When the bill passed the House in July, Biden’s administration expressed staunch opposition to it. Now, the Biden administration has said the president would veto the appropriations bill — which includes the SAVE Act.
Johnson said he and his party would work through the weekend on this bill, so there may be another vote on it next week. If that bill still does include the SAVE Act and passes the House, it’s highly unlikely the Democratic-controlled Senate will pass it and even more unlikely that Biden would sign it.
However, even if the SAVE Act doesn’t advance past the House — on its own or as part of the budget bill — Republicans were still able to widely spread their narrative about noncitizen voting, which could create doubt for voters about the credibility of the 2024 election.
Read the appropriations bill here.
Read the Biden Administration’s statement on the bill here.
Read more about the GOP’s false narrative on noncitizen voting here.