House Republican leaders are forging ahead on a bipartisan housing affordability bill Wednesday — without the partisan elections bill President Donald Trump demanded to be attached over the weekend.
Four people granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations said there are no plans to add in the SAVE America Act as Trump demanded on Truth Social — a version of which the House passed in February.
“We’ve already passed it,” one senior House GOP aide said, calling passage of the elections bill a Senate issue.
The episode underscores how President Donald Trump is wielding immense sway over his party by torpedoing the reelection bids of some Republicans who have defied him in recent years — most recently, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, whose bid for renomination failed Saturday.
But on Capitol Hill, Trump has repeatedly failed to force GOP leaders to heed some of his biggest policy demands — particularly in forcing them to add the SAVE America Act, which would tougher proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting, to must-pass bipartisan bills.
Trump has demanded action on the bill since at least March, when he told House Republicans at their policy retreat that “I don’t think we should approve anything until this is approved.”
He said in his Saturday post that “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT MUST BE PASSED, NOW” using “the Housing and FISA Bills to get it done!” The latter reference is to a must-pass reauthorization of federal surveillance powers that expire next month.
Adding the legislation to any must-pass bill would represent a “poison pill” for Democrats, who are blocking the elections bill from proceeding in the Senate. Trump has also asked GOP leaders there to overturn the 60-vote filibuster rule to pass it, but a critical mass of Republicans opposes that move.
“It cannot pass here. It will not pass here,” a Senate GOP aide said.
The housing bill is expected to move through the House under special fast-track procedures that will require a significant number of Democratic votes to pass.
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