Great News for Johnson: GOP Rebels End House Floor Holdout

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives finally broke a procedural blockade, clearing the way for a State Department appropriations vote. To gain the votes necessary on the procedural measure to break the blockade, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (LA-04) agreed to combine the State Department appropriations bill with the SAVE America voter ID bill, hopefully adding some impetus to the latter.

House conservatives ended their weeks-long blockade of the House floor Tuesday, handing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a key victory after the rebellion brought legislative business to a standstill for nearly a month.
The House successfully passed a procedural vote 215-211, teeing up votes on an appropriations bill funding the State Department, legislation making daylight saving time permanent and a measure seeking to improve veterans’ benefits.
Johnson also agreed to pair the State Department funding bill with the SAVE America Act, prompting several conservative holdouts to flip their votes after demanding the House increase pressure on the Senate to pass the stalled measure.

This move is expected to put pressure on Senate Republicans to pass the bill. A key organizer of the blockade was Representative Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13), who voted for the measure that lifted the legislative blockade.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who was among the GOP rebels who effectively shut down the chamber to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, agreed to unlock the floor after Johnson proposed pairing the election measure with the State Department appropriations bill.
Johnson sought to attach the SAVE America Act to the House’s version of an annual defense policy bill before the July 4 recess, but Luna continued the blockade anyway.
"If John Thune strips it out in the Senate, that will be on him, and the entire country should be watching what he does," Luna wrote on social media Monday.

That's a fair point. The Voter ID provision is popular among voters, with some polls having it at a 4-to-1 margin of approval.

Best Way to Honor Lindsey Graham: Pass the SAVE America Act Now

The problem, as before, lies in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) supports the voter ID measure, but has insisted there aren't enough votes in the Senate to overcome the 60-vote procedural hurdle, and he has so far declined to remove or alter the filibuster rule to allow passage, despite repeated claims from Democrats that they will do so at the earliest opportunity. House Republicans only have so much influence over the Senate.

Another possible stumbling block lies in a major piece of border and immigration enforcement legislation, the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act, which some border-state Republicans are seeking to have a floor vote on.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are advocating for a vote on the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act, which would codify several Trump executive orders targeting illegal immigration, including an end to catch-and-release policies.
"We need to deliver on codifying border security, deal with the birthright citizenship issue," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said. "These are all issues people that I represent care about intently and that we've talked about doing, and we need to deliver."

There's a good argument to be made that of all the bills before the House and Senate right now, the SAVE America Act should be the top priority, even over immigration enforcement. Without reforming election integrity, our elections will be increasingly suspect, and without secure elections, nothing else matters. And, while a procedural vote opening the House back up for business is a good thing, the SAVE America Act still faces an uphill battle in the Senate, even if it is attached to the State Department appropriations bill.

Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote.

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