President Donald Trump made a prime time pitch to lawmakers Thursday night to pass his election security bill as a salvo to his claims U.S. election systems are vulnerable to fraud and interference.
It may have just scrambled Republicans’ government funding plans.
House GOP leaders announced earlier Thursday they want to put a “clean” continuing resolution on the floor next week — a move that inherently means leaving out Trump’s SAVE America Act.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy would fund the government well ahead of the normal Sept. 30 deadline in a Congress that’s already seen two record-breaking funding lapses.
And, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, Johnson has also been privately trying to convince Trump to endorse the plan in hopes of stoking another shutdown fight far in advance of the midterms, which Republicans believe would work to their party’s advantage at the polls.
“Let’s see who actually does want to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people, which would be a bad thing,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Now Republicans could be under fresh pressure from Trump to try and pass a funding bill with the SAVE America Act attached, which would immediately peel off needed Democratic votes and cause Republicans to quickly lose their moral high ground.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was already warning Republicans on Thursday against “a my-way-or-the-highway approach” to government funding this fall.
Republicans could save face with Trump if they’re able to make progress toward passing a watered-down version of the elections measure as part of a filibuster-skirting reconciliation bill.
House Budget Republicans approved a fiscal blueprint for such a party-line package Thursday afternoon that would include up to $10 billion for election matters, like incentivizing states to implement stricter voter-ID laws — a central fixture of the SAVE America Act.
House GOP leaders are trying to put that budget resolution on the floor next week, too — setting up some serious whip operations for leaders trying to get buy-in from all corners of their conference on both measures.
It won’t be easy, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune provided Johnson with another cold reality check Thursday. After learning the speaker was telling reporters the Senate would adopt the House’s budget framework before August recess, Thune responded, “That’d be news to me.”
What else we’re watching:
— THUNE TAPS BREAKS ON SUNSHINE BILL: Overwhelming support from House lawmakers this week for permanent daylight saving time is not shared by many of their Senate colleagues. Thune said the Sunshine Protection Act has “a lot of opposition.” Many Republicans from agriculture states object to what would be late sunrises in the winter months. “I just don’t think we want a mandate,” he said Wednesday.
— CRUZ BULLISH ON JULY COLLEGE SPORTS VOTE: Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said he believes the Senate will vote on his bipartisan college sports measure this month. Cruz said Wednesday he has been meeting this week with “several dozen” commissioners and university presidents to solicit feedback on the bill introduced last month with Commerce’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell. Cruz said he’s making “minor modifications” to win support for the measure.
Kelsey Brugger, Jordain Carney and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.
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