House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) blew away Washington's holiday slumber on Monday with the news that he plans to attach a bill to ban foreigners from voting in federal elections to a short-term spending bill that will fund the government through March.
Conservatives in Washington were excited. The move was unusual for a speakership that has traditionally avoided major fights, and a tactic that conservatives in both chambers have repeatedly called for. “Blaze News Tonight” aired shortly after the SAVE Act passed the House with five Democratic votes. During the first segment, SAVE Act sponsor Robert M.
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) Republicans have been trying to pressure Democrats in exactly this way, with former President Donald Trump endorsing Lee's proposal shortly after.
Reporters who claim the Republicans have no chance of winning fail to understand that the political position has shifted dramatically outside of Washington, and that Harris is now committed to completing the border wall.
But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky doesn't want a fight over the government shutdown. He believes Republicans could lose at any time. His problem is that that stance puts him not only against his House and Senate colleagues and candidates, but also against a Republican donor base that is strongly in favor of passing legislation before the November elections.
McConnell argued during the conference that by attaching the SAVE Act to the House version, Republicans could use Senate Rule 22, which allows senators to attach “appropriate” amendments, to allow Democrats to attach the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
But that's impossible. The rules are so strict, the SAVE Act is so narrow, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is so big that it would overhaul the law beyond federal elections. Republicans should be able to block this maneuver because they're not relevant.
The truth is, McConnell is worried about two Republican Senate candidates. He supportsTwo Democrats are running in tough battles against incumbent Democrats in Republican-leaning states: Tim Sheehy of Montana and Bernie Moreno of Ohio. Both are in tough battles against at-risk Democratic incumbents in Republican-leaning states. McConnell is committing his resources (and his Senate Recapture Plan) to winning these races, and he doesn't want to give either Democrat a helping hand by allowing a vote on the SAVE Act.
But perhaps the debate reveals just how devastating the SAVE Act would be to the Democratic message. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is fine with opposing the bill and getting support from New York voters, but independents and Democrats alike are broadly opposed to illegal immigration.
Reporters who claim Republicans have no chance of winning fail to understand that the political standing has shifted dramatically outside of Washington, where Vice President Kamala Harris's team is committed to completing the border wall.
“I’d be very interested to see what Chuck Schumer’s reaction would be if the House passes the SAVE Act,” Lee told The Blaze News. “I know Democrats have publicly said they don’t want it in the bill, but I would love to see them publicly defend their efforts to remove it at that point and, if they can’t remove it, justify not passing it. [continuing resolution] That's simply because it includes the SAVE Act.”
Democrats who try to argue that protecting the integrity of American elections is also a winning message, and that there are already laws against it, are falling into traditionally familiar territory for Republicans: arguing policy technicalities against a politically popular message. This is a very difficult fight to win.
If the Republicans push forward with the fight, The number of Democrats who voted for SAVE last time will probably increase, and in the Senate, Schumer will need to do everything in his power to get the 51 votes needed to remove SAVE from the House bill, which means pressuring struggling incumbents to cast unpopular votes. Schumer wants to keep the Senate as much as Republicans want to take it, so he may well end up allowing Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to defect.
Republicans have put Democrats in a tough spot. This fight can be won, but it depends a lot on how determined Democrats are willing to stand. Will Johnson pass a short-term budget and the SAVE Act when the House returns to Washington next week, then recess and leave town until Schumer is forced to act? In an election year, that might work.
McConnell is out of the running in November, so his power to stop this is weakened. But brinkmanship takes a strong nerve. This is a great old party dynamic. Will Johnson flinch? Will the Senate Republicans cave? Watch. We'll know soon enough.
“If progressives really want foreigners to vote, they'll have to say so,” Lee said.
Blaze News: McConnell opposes efforts to tie the citizenship voting bill to a budget resolution to avoid a government shutdown.
Wall Street Journal: Harris is still trying to rebuild Biden's 2020 winning coalition
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