Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that if House Republicans try to jam voter ID legislation into the Trump-backed funding deal, it would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
House Republicans want to walk away from the current spending fight with a victory of sorts, despite President Donald Trump taking the lead and negotiating a temporary funding truce with Schumer and Senate Democrats.
They're demanding that the five-bill funding package, which stripped out the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill in favor of a two-week funding extension, also include the House Republicans' updated Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, dubbed the SAVE America Act.
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But doing so is a bridge too far for Schumer. The top Senate Democrat argued that the legislation, which has been sitting on the shelf in the House for months, is "reminiscent of Jim Crow-era laws," and would act as a means to suppress voters rather than encourage more secure elections.
"I have said it before, and I'll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate," Schumer said in a statement.
"It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to. If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown," he continued.
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The updated version of the SAVE Act would require that people present photo identification before voting, states obtain proof of citizenship in-person when people register to vote and remove non-citizens from voter rolls.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who is leading the push to attach the voter ID legislation to the funding package, countered Schumer's accusation in a post on X.
"If you are a minority that wants a voter ID, apparently you are for racist policies according to [Schumer]," she said.
Schumer's edict touches on the reality of the partisan divide in the Senate and the nature of passing any legislation in most cases. In order for the SAVE Act to become law, it would have to get at least 60 votes in the upper chamber. And given Senate Democrats' disdain for the bill, that is unlikely.
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And adding the bill would further disincentivize House Democrats, who are already leery of the deal. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., may need their support given the anger simmering in his conference.
Further complicating matters is that if the modified package with the SAVE Act were to make it out of the House, it would have to go back to the Senate, creating a virtual ping-pong between the chambers as what was meant to be a short-term partial government shutdown drags on.
Still, House Republicans aren't backing off of their demands and have backup in the upper chamber from Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, and a co-sponsor of the updated SAVE Act.
"House Republicans shouldn't let Schumer dictate the terms of government funding," Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said on X. "If Dems want to play games, no spending package should come out of the House without the SAVE Act attached - securing American elections must be a non-negotiable."
