Johnson says House will pass stalled SAVE America Act 'one more time' after latest Trump demands

Caving to MAGA hardliners, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the U.S. House will pass the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump's massive voter suppression bill, "one more time" through a budget reconciliation process.

"The big urgency is to get SAVE America passed," Johnson told Fox News Sunday. "The president has that as a top priority, and so do I."

His announcement came a day after Trump used his Independence Day speech to again call for the bill's passage, presenting it as a means to end nonexistent election fraud. But the bill has repeatedly stalled in the U.S. Senate — and still appears to lack the votes to pass.

Johnson's approach would attempt to overcome that problem by including the SAVE America Act in a budget reconciliation bill. That "will be the way to get it through the Senate and finally to the president's desk," he said.

But despite the speaker's confidence, the reconciliation push would almost certainly fail in the Senate because the chamber has strict rules about what can be included in budget bills.

If it became law, the SAVE America Act would be the most restrictive anti-voting legislation ever passed by Congress. It would likely result in millions of Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — losing the ability to vote because they are unable to provide proof of citizenship documents or photo identification.

Last week, a small contingent of conservative hardliners led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forced Johnson to call an early holiday recess by hijacking the House's agenda in an effort to pressure the speaker to take up the SAVE America Act.

If the SAVE America Act passes as part of a reconciliation bill, it would be the House's fourth time passing some form of the voter-suppression package in recent years.

Like their previous attempts to pass the bill, House Republicans' reconciliation push would almost certainly die in the Senate. That's because while reconciliation packages are shielded from the typical Senate filibuster and can pass with a simple majority, the Senate parliamentarian, the chamber's legislative umpire, would strip the act from a reconciliation package for failing to pertain to the budget.