After nearly a month of what can only be described as the legislative equivalent of locking yourself out of your own house, House Republicans finally ended their self-imposed procedural blockade on Tuesday. Speaker Mike Johnson had to cut a deal to make it happen, and as USA Journal reported, the deal he struck was to pair the State Department appropriations bill directly with the SAVE America Act, the voter ID legislation that conservative holdouts had been demanding all along.
The procedural vote passed 215 to 211, which in today's House counts as a landslide. This clears the way for votes on the State Department funding bill, permanent Daylight Saving Time (finally, someone is thinking about the important stuff), and veterans' benefits legislation.
Several conservative members who had been holding the chamber hostage over Senate inaction on voter ID flipped their votes the instant the pairing was confirmed. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who organized the blockade and kept it running like a well-oiled protest machine, voted yes and immediately pointed the finger north toward the Senate: "If John Thune strips it out in the Senate, that will be on him, and the entire country should be watching what he does."
So now the ball is in John Thune's court, which is historically not a place where bold action tends to happen. The House has passed or attached the SAVE America Act multiple times through multiple vehicles at this point. They have practically gift wrapped it and left it on the Senate's doorstep with a nice card. Thune's response has been to declare there are not 60 votes to overcome the filibuster while also declining to do anything about the filibuster threshold that is the only thing standing in the way.
This is the political equivalent of saying you cannot open a jar while refusing to use the jar opener sitting right next to you on the counter.
Meanwhile, polling shows roughly 4 to 1 public support for requiring proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote. That is across party lines, across demographics, across basically every group pollsters can find. The only place this is controversial is inside the Washington bubble, where certain folks have a vested interest in keeping the current system exactly as loose as it is.
Chip Roy and the Freedom Caucus are also pushing for a floor vote on the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act, which would codify the end of catch and release and lock in border security measures. Fair enough. The House can walk and chew gum at the same time. Theoretically.
But the SAVE America Act is the one that has to cross the finish line before the 2026 midterms. Without election integrity, every other legislative win is essentially a sandcastle waiting for the tide. Democrats have fought this bill at every turn, which tells you everything you need to know about how effective they think it would be.
Thune needs 51 votes to change the filibuster threshold and pass this thing. The whole country is indeed watching. Whether that motivates him or just makes him sweat remains to be seen.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
