Congress
House passes GOP elections overhaul
The House passed a major GOP elections overhaul Wednesday after intense pressure from President Donald Trump, tech mogul Elon Musk and hard-right influencers. But the legislation still has no clear path forward in the Senate, where Republicans privately acknowledge there is not enough GOP support to skirt a Democratic filibuster as Trump is demanding.
The SAVE America Act, an updated version of a bill tightening voter registration standards that the House passed last year, was approved on a 218-213 vote. One Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted for it — down from the four who backed the earlier effort.
Conservative hard-liners wanted the bill attached to a massive government funding package this month, threatening to extend a four-day partial government shutdown until Trump intervened and ordered House Republicans to pass the bill without it.
The legislation would trigger major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring voters to present proof of citizenship to register, eliminating mail-only registrations, and requiring photo ID in every state for the first time. It would also require states to take new steps to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.
The GOP’s hope is that the focus on election integrity and Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” will help drive turnout among MAGA voters when Trump isn’t on the ballot this November, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy. The vote is also meant to satisfy the president’s demands for a voting crackdown as he mulls bigger overhauls many Republicans oppose, like “federalizing” America’s election system and ending mail voting.
But the House vote hands a hot potato to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has ruled out changing Senate rules to weaken the 60-voter supermajority threshold to pass the bill and has reacted coolly to suggestions a “talking filibuster” approach could work instead.
House GOP leaders deployed a procedural feint, using a Senate-passed shell bill to try to fast-track consideration in the other chamber — part of the Trump-backed push to try to force a reckoning on the filibuster.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) poured cold water on House Republicans’ celebratory mood this week.
Even before the House vote Wednesday, Murkowski announced she would oppose it — lambasting the bill as “federal overreach.” Her move sparked an onslaught of recriminations from House Republicans, who are still pushing Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson to find a way to send the bill to Trump’s desk.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will headline a fundraiser next week for Rep. Mike Collins, the state’s GOP Senate nominee, according to an invite obtained by Blue Light News.
The Sept. 24 event will be held in Atlanta, and it comes as public polling shows Collins trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans have pushed to bring in more financial resources to close the gap in the top battleground.
Ossoff has repeatedly led Collins in candidate-level fundraising, but the Republican party committees and President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC combined hold a huge fundraising edge over the affiliated Democratic Party’s committees — which could potentially give Collins a boost.
The event, billed as a “roundtable and reception benefiting” Collins, could be a boon to Georgia Republicans, who have privately worried that party leaders are prioritizing other competitive Senate races, including in Michigan and Maine, as they look to defend the upper chamber.
Thune, as Senate GOP leader, is one of the party’s most prominent fundraisers. Kemp, meanwhile, has strong ties to Georgia and remains a popular figure in the state.
Collins’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The party is closing ranks behind Mike Collins with two of the strongest fundraisers heading to Atlanta to help him,” said one person close to the Collins campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics of the race. “That’s not the sign of a candidate in trouble, it’s the sign of a candidate — who has closed the race from 13 to 7 points while being outspent — getting air support to bring this thing home.”
Kemp — who initially backed former football coach Derek Dooley in the Senate GOP primary — endorsed Collins earlier this week.
The fundraiser will also feature Georgia’s first lady Marty Kemp.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries again declined to say how he will respond to two rebel Democrats who have twice bucked party leaders to advance the Republican floor agenda.
“As I repeatedly made clear, I’ll have more to say — we’ll have more to say — about the situation when we have more to say about the situation,” Jeffries said at a Thursday news conference with the No. 2 and 3 leaders, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.
Clark suggested Wednesday that one of the rebels, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, should lose her Appropriations Committee seat after the second break. After Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden of Maine voted with Republicans earlier this month, Jeffries pledged a “serious response” that did not publicly materialize.
Standing beside Clark and Aguilar on Thursday, Jeffries said, “There is no daylight between the three of us, and we’ll address the situation when we address the situation.”
“The focus right now on taking back control of the House of Representatives,” he added. “That’s what the American people want to see — a dramatic change in this country because they are drowning.”
Sen. Jon Husted will try to send the first major legislative action to address the costs of the artificial intelligence boom to President Donald Trump’s desk Thursday.
The Ohio Republican, facing a tough reelection bid, will try to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act by requesting unanimous consent from his colleagues, a process by which senators can swiftly clear legislation. It would take only one senator to object, however, to sink the effort.
“Senator Husted will go to the floor this afternoon and request a live UC on the Ratepayer Protection Act,” said Olivia Tripodi, a spokesperson for his office.
If passed, the Ratepayer Protection Act could become Congress’s answer to address the costs of the data center build-out ahead of the midterm election. It comes after weeks of internal debate among lawmakers in both parties over how to best respond to growing backlash against data centers and could set the stage for further congressional action on AI in the months ahead.
It’s unclear, however, if all Democrats will line up behind the bill, which passed in a broad bipartisan House vote of 417-3 on Wednesday.
Democrats haven’t said if they will block Husted’s bill, but they could make a counteroffer to try to pass their own legislation instead, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly. Some Democrats have said the bill doesn’t go far enough to protect ratepayers.
“Data centers is a key issue and Jon Husted is in a very tough race, … so this is a frequent approach: last-minute legislation on a subject that’s controversial in the senatorial contest,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
The bill would require states to consider — but not mandate they adopt — a federal standard ensuring large data center operators cover 100% of the costs of new generation and transmission upgrades.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) also said he would need to review the bill more closely.
“I’ve got to review that more closely if it’s going to be UC,” Lee said Tuesday. “There are several other procedural mechanisms by which this could receive a vote in some fashion.”
Husted is leading the Senate version of the bill, while Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) sponsored the House bill.
Anthony Cruz contributed to this report.
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