President Trump persuaded his MAGA allies in Congress not to prolong the partial government shutdown in an effort to force the Senate to vote on a GOP election integrity bill.
Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Tim Burchett of Tennessee were leading a group of House Republicans threatening to block the government funding package on Tuesday if the SAVE America Act was not added.
They dropped the demand after meeting with Mr. Trump and talking to Republican senators on Monday evening about an alternative path for getting the bill through the Senate over Democrats’ objections.
The SAVE America Act is a recently revamped bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and an ID to cast a ballot.
“There is something called a standing filibuster that would effectively allow Sen. Thune to put voter ID on the floor of the Senate,” Ms. Luna told reporters after returning from the White House. “We are hearing that that is going well, and that he is considering that.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office declined to comment. The South Dakota Republican told reporters earlier Monday that the immediate goal is to fund the government and the Senate would hold a vote on the SAVE America Act “soon enough.”
“It’ll be a function of when we can get time on the schedule,” he said. “And who knows, maybe that’s in the context of another piece of legislation that’s moving through.”
Mr. Thune has long been an opponent of ending the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to clear.
Enforcing a standing filibuster would require any senator or group of senators wanting to block a bill to hold the floor and talk.
Ms. Luna and Mr. Burchett said they and their Republican allies pushing the election integrity measure are no longer planning to vote against a procedural rule needed to begin debate on the spending bill.
Because rules are typically party-line votes, their opposition under the House Republicans’ one-vote margin would have been enough to block the bill from proceeding.
Now the House is on track to debate and vote Tuesday on the Senate-amended spending package completing the outstanding fiscal 2026 bills except one.
The Department of Homeland Security would run on stopgap spending through Feb. 13 to give lawmakers and the White House time to negotiate over immigration enforcement policies.
Republicans may support the rule but several are still expected to vote against the bill. That means Democratic support will be needed for it to pass.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his caucus has “a diversity of perspectives” on the spending package.
Some Democrats do not want to vote for any measure that funds ICE, even for two weeks. Others are opposed to derailing the bipartisan appropriations bills in the package.
The Democratic leadership team has not yet taken an official position, but Mr. Jeffries said the Trump administration has not done enough to assure them there is a clear path to achieving “dramatic reform of ICE.”
The president posted on social media ahead of the breakthrough meeting with Ms. Luna and Mr. Burchett, urging Republicans and Democrats alike to support the bill and send it to his desk without delay.
“There can be NO CHANGES at this time,” he said. “We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly.”
Mr. Trump has said enacting voter ID is one of his top priorities, and Ms. Luna believes he remains committed to that goal.
“He wants me to do everything I can in regards to getting voter ID and the SAVE AMERICA Act passed, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” she said.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said it was “outrageous” that Republicans would even consider adding the SAVE America Act to the government funding legislation.
“Democrats have been clear for months, we will never in a million years consider this deeply restrictive and overreaching piece of legislation,” he said. “It has nothing to do with protecting our elections and everything to do with federalizing voter suppression. The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0.”
