Government Shutdown Possible Next Month if Proof of Citizenship Bill Added to Must-Pass Continuing Resolution By Debra Heine
Democrats are prepared to shutdown the government next month over common-sense voter security measures attached to a must-pass continuing resolution (CR).
The CR is required to keep to keep the government funded past Sept. 30, and House conservatives may use it to force consideration of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, the Hill reported. The bill, if passed, would make it mandatory for states to obtain proof of citizenship to register voters and require states to purge noncitizens from voter rolls.
Democrats strongly oppose all voter integrity measures, arguing that they aren’t necessary and make it harder for legal citizens to vote.
The House passed the SAVE Act on July 10 with a majority of 216 Republicans and five Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has yet to take the proof of citizenship bill up in the Senate.
“Today 198 House Democrats voted against preventing illegal aliens from voting in American elections,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) after the vote last month. “Over the past four years, Joe Biden has welcomed millions upon millions of illegals into the country knowing that noncitizens only have to check a box to vote in a federal election.”
Earlier this month, the House Freedom Caucus urged Johnson to attach the the SAVE Act to next month’s spending legislation. With the November election on the line, Republicans in both chambers have joined the chorus.
Although the Democrat-led Senate is expected to reject the package, the Speaker is taking the idea seriously, telling the press last week that discussions are ongoing to “build consensus to come up with the final decision.”
“I can verify for you that the SAVE Act is a big part of this conversation,” Johnson said. “And it is not just the Freedom Caucus—it is members across the conference who share the same concern that we do about this. And we believe it’s one of the — perhaps the most urgent issue, the most imminent threat facing the country, is the integrity of this election cycle.”
On the GOP Senate side however, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office, according to Axios, has been privately pushing against attaching the SAVE Act to the September spending bill.
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) said this week that he disagrees with Senate GOP leadership on this, arguing there is no good argument against it.
“Senate GOP leadership opposes the idea, fearing it could lead to (a) a shutdown, and (b) Senate Democrats attaching other priorities Republicans don’t like,” Lee explained to billionaire Elon Musk on X. “Those arguments miss the point: it’s go time, and if we don’t fix this problem now, we might not get another chance.”
“Failure to do so would not only be malpractice, it could lead to catastrophe,” the Utah Republican added. “We have 30 million noncitizens in the U.S.—including 10 million who entered illegally with help from the Harris admin. We can’t let them vote.”
Joe Biden vowed to veto the SAVE Act when the House considered it last month, saying it is already a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.
While there is proof of thousands of non-citizens casting or attempting to cast ballots in federal elections, that may be beside the point.
“Illegal aliens are not being imported to vote themselves,” independent journalist Kyle Becker noted on X, last month. “They are here to provide Democrat operatives with the opportunity to ballot harvest and to drop the ballots off at inner city drop boxes in swing states.”
Becker said that’s why “Democrats universally oppose voter IDs, oppose cleaning voting rolls, oppose single-day elections, endorse mass mail-in ballots, endorse electronic voting machines, endorse unchecked illegal immigration.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who introduced the SAVE Act last month, argued this week that the bill is necessary because of the Biden-Harris open border. More than 10 million aliens have entered the United States since Joe Biden took office in Jan 2021, an influx that surpasses the populations of 41 out of 50 states.
“We’re talking about a simple concept that only citizens should vote, in a world in which they’ve opened up our country to noncitizens,” Roy said.
Still, some weak-kneed Republicans in the House are not fully on board, worried that the GOP would be blamed for a government shutdown right before the election.
“Obviously, I support House Republican policy. But I think, at this point, attaching it to the CR is not the right thing to do. … I’m not supportive of that. Of course, I would vote for it if they did,” said Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.). “I’m hopeful on the first week back that we’ll get an agreement on a CR, probably through the election,” Bucshon added.
According to Sen. Lee, however, this is a do or die moment for the nation and Republicans need to take action.
“Americans don’t vote in foreign elections, noncitizens shouldn’t vote in ours,” he posted on X Wednesday. “We need the SAVE ACT—attached to the September spending bill—to stop that from happening.”
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