The House passed a major GOP elections overhaul Wednesday after intense pressure from President Donald Trump, tech mogul Elon Musk and hard-right influencers. But the legislation still has no clear path forward in the Senate, where Republicans privately acknowledge there is not enough GOP support to skirt a Democratic filibuster as Trump is demanding.
The SAVE America Act, an updated version of a bill tightening voter registration standards that the House passed last year, was approved on a 218-213 vote. One Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted for it — down from the four who backed the earlier effort.
Conservative hard-liners wanted the bill attached to a massive government funding package this month, threatening to extend a four-day partial government shutdown until Trump intervened and ordered House Republicans to pass the bill without it.
The legislation would trigger major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring voters to present proof of citizenship to register, eliminating mail-only registrations, and requiring photo ID in every state for the first time. It would also require states to take new steps to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.
The GOP’s hope is that the focus on election integrity and Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” will help drive turnout among MAGA voters when Trump isn’t on the ballot this November, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy. The vote is also meant to satisfy the president’s demands for a voting crackdown as he mulls bigger overhauls many Republicans oppose, like “federalizing” America’s election system and ending mail voting.
But the House vote hands a hot potato to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has ruled out changing Senate rules to weaken the 60-voter supermajority threshold to pass the bill and has reacted coolly to suggestions a “talking filibuster” approach could work instead.
House GOP leaders deployed a procedural feint, using a Senate-passed shell bill to try to fast-track consideration in the other chamber — part of the Trump-backed push to try to force a reckoning on the filibuster.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) poured cold water on House Republicans’ celebratory mood this week.
Even before the House vote Wednesday, Murkowski announced she would oppose it — lambasting the bill as “federal overreach.” Her move sparked an onslaught of recriminations from House Republicans, who are still pushing Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson to find a way to send the bill to Trump’s desk.
