House Republicans are eyeing a workaround to advance election reforms through a party-line spending package as the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act stalls in the Senate.
House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) is pushing a financial incentive model to get states to adopt many of the proposals tucked within the doomed bill. Steil’s proposals would provide federal tax dollars to states that implement voter identification laws and require proof of citizenship for voter registration — two policies the SAVE Act would require states to implement outright.
The plan would also provide grants for states to conduct post-election audits, upgrade infrastructure to speed up vote counting, and share voter data with federal agencies and other states, according to a document obtained by the Washington Examiner.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has fiercely advocated another party-line megabill that would skirt the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold in a process known as budget reconciliation. The parliamentary rules governing reconciliation are narrow and tailored to spending. This means that Republicans would likely be rebuffed if they tried to include a national voter ID mandate outright.
It remains to be seen if the wish list will garner the support of President Donald Trump, who has called the SAVE America Act his “No. 1 priority” this year.
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Another reconciliation bill will also be difficult for Johnson to get through the House. The speaker’s narrow majority has been stressed by absences and vacancies.
Yet, reconciliation could give Republicans a way to ease internal tensions over the SAVE America Act. Conservatives have pushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to skirt the filibuster to get the voter integrity measures through the chamber.