House to Vote on Short-Term Spending Bill that Includes a Measure to Stop Illegal Alien Voting
FAIR Take | September 2024
With just a few weeks until funding for the federal government runs out, the annual battle over spending is heating up in Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to make the first move this week by advancing a short-term spending bill (or continuing resolution) that includes the FAIR-supported Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to protect against noncitizen voting. Without legislation, government funding will expire on September 30.
This latest continuing resolution, which would extend federal funding through March 28, 2025, follows what has been a contentious appropriations process over the past two years. In March, nearly six months into Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, Congress finally passed a full-year funding package. But despite repeated and public pledges that funding bills would include critical border security reforms, neither the full-year FY2024 package, nor four short-term spending bills, nor the enacted foreign aid package included anything to end the crisis at the border. Over the previous year, infighting has periodically erupted between congressional factions regarding spending levels and priorities, particularly border security. FAIR has consistently insisted that key policy changes from H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, be included in any funding bills.
Negotiations on the FY2025 funding bills have again failed to reach consensus. While the House of Representatives has passed an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – including many positive border provisions – the Senate Appropriations Committee put its efforts on hold in July. As momentum to move appropriations bills through the regular committee process stalled, focus shifted towards short-term spending measures. The Senate and House remain split, however, on how long any short-term agreement should last and what provisions ought to be included.
Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced plans to vote on a spending bill to fund the federal government through March 2025, past election season and after the new Congress is sworn in. As Speaker Johnson indicated, text for that stopgap measure released late last week also includes the SAVE Act, which provides for important changes to protect federal elections from noncitizen voting.
The SAVE Act was introduced by Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) and passed the House in July by a vote of 221-198, with five Democrats voting in support. Responding to widespread concerns about election integrity in the face of the Biden-Harris Administration’s border crisis, the bill amends the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Specifically, it requires state elections officials to verify registrants’ citizenship using documents such as a U.S. passport, a birth certificate, or a REAL-ID compliant form of identification. The SAVE Act also requires states to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and provides for states to utilize existing federal databases to verify citizenship status. Finally, the legislation creates a private right of action for citizens to bring civil suits against election officials who fail to uphold proof of citizenship requirements.
Many Republicans support attaching the SAVE Act to the spending bill. Nearly a month ago, the influential House Freedom Caucus came out in favor of the move in order “to prevent non-citizens from voting to preserve free and fair elections in light of the millions of illegal aliens imported by the Biden-Harris administration over the last four years.” Speaker Johnson was likewise strongly supportive of the SAVE Act before its passage in July, calling it one of the most important votes Members of Congress would ever take. In a statement Friday, Johnson said, “Today, House Republicans are taking a critically important step to keep the federal government funded and to secure our federal election process…Congress has a responsibility to do both, and we must ensure that only American citizens can decide American elections.”
Yet, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) remained noncommittal, stating in a letter Sunday afternoon: “As I have said before, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way…We will not let poison pills or Republican extremism put funding for critical programs at risk.” A short-term spending bill including the SAVE Act is expected to face an uphill climb in the Senate.
Moving forward, FAIR will continue to advocate for measures that ensure that only American citizens have a say in American elections and for real border security reforms as part of any funding package.