House passes reconciliation framework for Pentagon boost, voting restrictions

House passes reconciliation framework for Pentagon boost, voting restrictions

House Republicans on Wednesday approved a $95 billion framework for a third budget reconciliation package that would boost funding for the Pentagon, provide agriculture aid and provide money to encourage states to adopt voting restrictions.

The vote is a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), as he had to win over lawmakers in his razor-thin majority who were concerned about the lack of spending offsets in the package.

"Republicans support our troops, our farmers, and election security. We're the only team in Washington that does," Johnson said in a statement to reporters after the budget resolution vote. "Many of you doubted our success."

But it's only the first vote in a long, multistep budget reconciliation process — and the budget blueprint faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

The lower chamber voted 216-214 to approve the budget blueprint.

Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Kevin Kiley (Calif.), an independent who caucuses with Republicans, joined all Democrats in voting against the measure.

The framework outlines $73 billion in defense and intelligence funding amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, $12 billion for agriculture aid and $10 billion for a fund aimed at incentivizing states to adopt Trump-backed voting restrictions, for a total of $95 billion.

Leaders also argue that the reconciliation process offers the best chance at delivering something in the vein of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, a Trump-pushed bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and presentation of an ID to cast a ballot. While the framework does not spell out the details of how such a program would work, the idea is to create a grant program to encourage states to adopt such voting restrictions.

Conservative hard-liners have been pushing hard for the SAVE America Act, but many of them note that the budget reconciliation process — which requires that its provisions be strictly budgetary and not policy changes, per the Senate's Byrd Rule — cannot force Democratic states to change their voting laws as the full SAVE America Act would.

Johnson called a third budget reconciliation bill "Republicans' best shot to get as much of the SAVE America Act into law as possible."