Congress
House Republicans prepare full-court press for voting restrictions
The House is set to vote next week on a once-obscure elections bill that has now become a household name among hard-right activists and a major rallying point for an otherwise divided GOP.
The SAVE America Act, aimed at tightening voter registration standards, has a difficult path to enactment despite a no-holds-barred pressure campaign from the likes of President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. Democrats are certain to filibuster the bill in the Senate, and it’s unlikely the GOP is ready to take extraordinary steps to overcome that hurdle.
But amid growing fears that their party is not doing enough to address Americans’ key concerns — rising prices chief among them — House GOP leaders and key senators have chosen to put the election security push at the center of their agenda.
The issue almost tanked a massive government funding package this week and threatened to extend a four-day partial government shutdown — until Trump intervened and ordered House Republicans to pass the bill without attaching the elections legislation.
But the issue is not going away. Besides the House action next week — the chamber’s second vote on a version of the legislation in less than a year — there is a mounting campaign on GOP senators to find ways around Democratic opposition and get the bill to Trump’s desk.
Trump is personally involved in the effort. Majority Leader Steve Scalise spoke with the president about the bill at a Jan. 29 White House meeting, and GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin met with Trump to discuss it Thursday afternoon.
Scalise said in an interview that Trump “wants to find the best place to get it passed so it can get signed into law” and Republican leaders are “in the process of working with the president to get the best path forward.”
The legislation would trigger major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring would-be 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 push for the bill has taken flight among GOP hard-liners, who won a private promise from Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule the upcoming vote, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the conversations, in lieu of attaching the election bill to the larger spending package and threatening its ability to clear the Senate.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair this week also wrangled House GOP holdouts upset over the lack of action on the elections bill. The top Trump political aide worked to salvage the funding package in a series of phone calls in the final minutes before it was ultimately passed, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Democrats and voting-access advocates have attacked the legislation as likely to disenfranchise huge swaths of legitimate voters in a misguided effort to address an alleged epidemic of noncitizen voting that they say does not exist.“If you’re one of the tens of millions of U.S. citizens who does not have access to your birth certificate, or if you’re one of the 50 percent of Americans who don’t have a passport, the SAVE Act could make it impossible for you to participate in elections,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said this week.
But the bill is in keeping with Trump’s longstanding belief, unsupported by evidence, that elections in many states are “rigged” in favor of Democrats and that strong federal action is needed to rectify it. He said in an interview this week that Republicans should seek to “nationalize” elections.
Addressing House Republicans at a policy retreat last month, Trump told them they “ought to pass” the SAVE America Act, formerly known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
“Our elections are crooked as hell, and you can win — not only win elections over that and not only win future elections, but you’ll win every debate because the public is really angry about it,” he said.
He reiterated the message in a Truth Social post Thursday, published after his meeting with the three senators: “We are either going to fix [America’s elections], or we won’t have a Country any longer.”
The House is expected to vote on a procedural measure Tuesday paving the final floor action later in the week. What happens in the Senate after that is less clear.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pledged to call the bill up for a vote at some point in the coming months, but under normal circumstances Democrats could block it from proceeding.
Yet rank-and-file House Republicans and some GOP senators are pushing for a breakthrough, urging Thune to require a “talking filibuster” or “standing filibuster” that would eventually, they believe, force Democrats to relent. The change would force senators to be present and speaking on the Senate floor to block legislation, as opposed to the current practice of requiring 60 votes to end debate and move to the final passage of most bills.
But Thune has treaded carefully around any suggestion that the 60-vote rule should be diluted. Many Republican senators want to see the supermajority threshold start in place, and Thune dismissed claims from some House Republicans this week that he had agreed to pursue the talking filibuster route. He said he would only agree to discuss the matter with his conference.
With the Senate still working through how to pass long-term Department of Homeland Security funding, that internal conversation has yet to take place. Some senators are privately and publicly warning the push could tie up the Senate floor for weeks or months, blocking other GOP priorities.
Some hard-line Republicans are floating a trial run, using the talking filibuster to try to pass a DHS funding stopgap, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private discussions.
“I would just remind people that the coin of the realm in the Senate is floor time, and we have a lot of things we have to do,” Thune told reporters. “Triggering a talking filibuster has implications and ramifications that I think everybody needs to be aware of. So we will have those discussions.”
In a sign that Republicans are looking at this as more than a political messaging exercise, the bill’s proponents say they are addressing some of the criticisms of the bill — including that it could effectively bar members of the U.S. military stationed abroad from voting.
Co-author Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said there are exceptions in the bill that would address the military and other concerns but allow only “true absentee ballots.” He said he was otherwise focused on pushing the other chamber to sidestep Democrats and send the bill to Trump.
“They get on the Senate floor, they can call the question, if there are people willing to speak … there’ll be drama, and then we’ll see what happens,” Roy said. “We’ll see who wins, but that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Congress
‘Hate to lose the earmarks’: This powerful Republican got trounced despite securing billions
More than $1.5 billion in earmarks couldn’t save Sen. Susan Collins from the “blue wave” Tuesday night, proving outsized influence in Congress isn’t always an antidote for deep voter dissatisfaction with an incumbent party.
The Maine Republican centered her reelection campaign on the argument that, in an institution largely governed by seniority, her nearly 30 years in Washington and control of the powerful Appropriations Committee could deliver more for Maine than her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. She even peppered voters with county-specific text messages in the final days before polls closed, touting the spoils of a half-decade of earmarks guaranteeing funding for specific home-state projects.
But it wasn’t enough, by a long shot. Collins lost to Jackson by almost 8 percentage points Tuesday night, matching similar Democratic blowouts throughout the country as Republicans were ousted from control of both the House and Senate.
Collins campaign manager Steve Abbott attributed the Republican incumbent’s loss to “bigger forces at play” than local politics, noting that the five-term senator “has been able to do extraordinary things for the state at a level that’s unprecedented in our modern history.”
“People are really unhappy about the direction of the country,” Abbott added in an interview at the Collins watch party as disappointed supporters left the ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor.
Collins is not the only Republican incumbent who touted earmarks in the final weeks before Election Day and lost anyway. Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Monica De La Cruz of Texas were all defeated Tuesday despite reminding voters of the hundreds of millions of dollars they each secured for specific projects in their districts.
Three others who took that tack — Reps. David Valadao of California, Rob Wittman of Virginia and Tom Barrett of Michigan — are trailing their Democratic challengers as election officials continue to tally votes in those districts.
Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who has represented Portland and surrounding towns for almost 18 years, said in an interview that there is no doubt voters are “grateful for the amount of money a state’s able to receive” when represented by a top appropriator.
“But I think Mainers were balancing the Republican majority and the cuts to our state already,” Pingree added. “So, yes — we hate to lose the earmarks that go to fire departments and sewer projects and other things. But overall, we’re much better off without a Republican majority.”
She noted almost $1 trillion in reductions to health care spending under the GOP megabill enacted last year, President Donald Trump’s tariffs, staffing losses at federal agencies like USDA and the expiration of subsidies for people who buy health care through the federal marketplace.
Jackson, the Democrat who beat Collins, said on Election Day he should be assigned to the Appropriations Committee to ensure Maine still has a seat at the table.
“I know people will chuckle and stuff like that. I know it’s based on seniority,” Jackson told reporters at a canvassing event in Portland Tuesday, hours before the polls called. “But I think if I beat the Appropriations chair, then I should be on Appropriations. That’s going to be my argument anyways.”
However, a person close to the Collins campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly, warned that Maine voters “are going to wake up and be kind of shocked” at the influence and funding they have lost by ousting the longtime senator — and that “someone brand new” won’t be able to bring home the same level of federal funding.
“You can go to any town here in Maine,” the person said, “and Sen. Collins has delivered.”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan announced Wednesday he will seek to lead House Republicans as they enter the minority for the first time in four years.
“As we look to the future, we must learn from these results,” he said in a letter to colleagues a day after voters delivered an enormous rebuke to GOP candidates. “When Americans get knocked down, they pick themselves up and get back to work. Now our Conference must do the same.”
With Republicans at risk of losing 40 seats or more, Jordan is seeking to lead a much diminished corps of lawmakers. He pitched himself in the letter as a “battle-tested” combatant who is well-equipped to tangle with an emboldened new Democratic majority.
“In these next two years, our job cannot be merely to spotlight how radical this new Democrat party is — offense, not defense, wins elections,” he wrote, promising to “prioritize making Americans’ neighborhoods safer, keeping more money in their pockets, and protecting enduring American values and freedoms.”
“To restore our majority, we must restore voters’ faith in our ability to deliver on these principles,” he added.
Many Republicans expected Jordan to run for the position if Republicans lost the House after spending months laying the groundwork for a third leadership bid. Most recently chair of the Judiciary Committee, the 62-year-old House veteran has long been a popular figure among the GOP’s conservative base and helped a variety of candidates across the party’s ideological divides in the final weeks leading up to the election.
Jordan is expected to be joined in the minority leader race by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who could make his own announcement later Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff he plans to step aside.
Jordan took aim at the current House GOP hierarchy in his letter to colleagues: “For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us. That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democrat majority.”
“We need a Leadership team that is active and engaged, forward-thinking and straight-shooting,” he added.
A co-founder of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Jordan has made inroads with more moderate colleagues in recent years. His previous bids at a top leadership position — for minority leader against Kevin McCarthy in 2018 and then later to replace McCarthy as speaker in 2023 — were unsuccessful.
When he ran for the speakership, a group of moderate House Republicans blocked Jordan in a public vote on the House floor. This time, Jordan will only need a majority of the Republican Conference to win as minority leader.
The race for House minority whip is shaping up to be a contest between the current House majority whip, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, and Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger of Texas.
Emmer, who already said he had planned to run for the job regardless of the outcome of the midterms, has officially started making calls, according to two people directly familiar with the outreach, granted anonymity to describe private conversations. Pfluger, meanwhile, formally announced his plan to run for whip Wednesday morning in a letter to colleagues.
“We started 2025 with a clear mandate, and although there were successes, I believe we left a lot on the table,” Pfluger said in the letter, obtained by Blue Light News. “Some circumstances may have been out of our control, but we also missed many opportunities.”
Pfluger was among those who had pushed previously for Republicans to crack down on alleged fraud in social safety net programs in party-line budget reconciliation bills. He said Wednesday that while House Republicans have “a lot to be proud of,” the time has come to “regroup, recharge and fully unify.”
It’s all unfolding after the GOP’s devastating loss on Tuesday night, which could have some members looking for a fresh leadership team. Already Speaker Mike Johnson has said he has no intention of running to be minority leader, clearing the path for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio or the current House majority leader, Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
House GOP leadership elections will begin next week, with candidates having until this Friday at noon to make their bids official.
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