Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) used a Wednesday lunch with White House officials to warn about the difficulty of getting elements of the SAVE America Act passed through a party-line budget process.
Thune brought up the election integrity measure as GOP senators huddled with White House budget chief Russ Vought and deputy chief of staff James Blair to discuss a $95 billion bill that would also include farm aid and tens of billions in funding for the Pentagon.
According to three sources familiar with the meeting, Thune cautioned that the SAVE America Act, a voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill, could open a can of worms as the White House pushes for a “flexible” approach that allows Republicans to get as many of its provisions into law as possible. Doing so would involve more committees and likely give Democrats more chances to force votes at a lower, simple-majority threshold.
Due to the filibuster-skirting rules of budget reconciliation, the bill would have to survive two voting marathons on the Senate floor before it could be passed.
“We have to know with greater clarity what the jurisdictional issues are with the committees,” Thune told the Washington Examiner after the meeting, calling the 50-vote threshold a “challenge.”
Republicans in the upper chamber control a three-seat majority but currently lack the vote of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as he recovers from a fall.
Thune did not discourage Republicans from pursuing the SAVE America Act through reconciliation, according to the three sources. But he has been far more resistant to the process as a whole than House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who ushered a budget blueprint through the House before leaving for the August recess last week.
That blueprint earmarked $10 billion in grants that would incentivize states to adopt its voting restrictions. The incentive-based approach is intended to comply with strict Senate rules that only allow reconciliation language that has a direct fiscal impact.
“He has not come out and said let’s not do it,” one source familiar with the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of Thune. “He’s identified some of the questions we’ll have to tackle.”
Speaking to reporters, Thune also nodded Wednesday to the skepticism from members who say higher Pentagon funding needs to be in the reconciliation bill for it to be worth the time it would take to pass through the Senate.
The House blueprint includes $60 billion for the department as it undertakes a war with Iran, but defense hawks want to raise that figure closer to the $300 billion Trump originally requested.
“There’s clearly an interest among certain members in our conference for a higher level on the military, on defense,” Thune said.
Off the table is a hike in the federal debt ceiling, something that became part of the conversation earlier this week. Vought, the White House budget chief, told reporters it should be handled at a later date.
“We believe that is something that should come later in reconciliation 4.0, along with the rest of the defense spending that the president has, that will get you to $1.5 trillion,” Vought told reporters after the Wednesday lunch.
HOW THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL BECAME LAW: GRAHAM WINS OVER ‘MURDERER’S ROW’
He and Blair traveled to the Capitol to urge Senate Republicans to pass the blueprint before they go on break next week, something Thune says is complicated by the Senate’s government funding talks.
“We’re trying to get it done,” Vought said. “We’re making the case to the Senate, and they’re very, very receptive.”