'Real division': House GOP fears infighting over next spending bill could cost them election

29 August 2024

Congress is facing a deadline this fall to keep the federal government open. Now, House GOP leaders are hoping to avoid a contentious fight over inserting a far-right policy priority into a must-pass funding bill.

Politico reported Thursday that lawmakers are already gearing up for a major legislative squabble when they return from the August recess after the Labor Day weekend. Congress has until October 1 to pass an appropriations bill keeping government agencies funded. Should they fail to get a bill on President Joe Biden's desk prior to that deadline, the federal government could shut down, impacting the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of workers just one month prior to the presidential election.

While Democrats are advocating for a continuing resolution (CR) that will keep all federal agencies funded at their current levels past the November election, some members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus want House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to fight for the inclusion of a controversial policy known as the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) in the next funding bill.

"I think the overwhelming majority of Republicans and, I think, the leadership, want to see a version of a CR with the SAVE Act the week we get back," Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said.

One unnamed House Republican lawmaker speaking anonymously told Politico that they privately hoped that Congress would pass a short-term CR to keep the government funded through the end of 2024, and include the SAVE Act when the funding deadline is kicked to December. However, they added that any funding bill including the SAVE Act would likely not pass the Democratic-run U.S. Senate.

“It’s just never been clearer to me that the real division within the Republican conference is between realists and dreamers. I think the realists understand the nature of power in D.C. and the dreamers simply don’t,” the lawmaker said.

If enacted, the SAVE Act would require all voters submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote (typically a passport, birth certificate or naturalization documents), under the argument that election integrity is at risk of being compromised due to non-citizen voting. Speaker Johnson rolled it out in a press conference earlier this year, saying it would "prevent" undocumented immigrants from voting, even though existing federal law already does so.

But according to the Associated Press (AP). non-citizen voting is already effectively non-existent, and typically only happens when an immigrant mistakenly believes they are eligible to vote. The publication noted that when Texas attempted legislation banning non-citizen voting in 2019, it mistakenly labeled thousands of citizens as ineligible to vote, resulting in a federal judge striking the law altogether.

The Brennan Center for Justice further reported that millions of Americans don't have immediate access to documents needed to prove citizenship, which could complicate voter registration for native-born citizens who may have already voted in previous elections.

"Our research indicates that more than 9 percent of American citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, don’t have proof of citizenship readily available. There are myriad reasons for this — the documents might be in the home of another family member or in a safety deposit box," the Brennan Center wrote in June. "And at least 3.8 million don’t have these documents at all, often because they were lost, destroyed, or stolen."

Click here to read Politico's report in full.

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