House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday suggested a different course of action to pass the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate.
While addressing reporters at the Capitol building, he noted that President Donald Trump is “laser-focused on the SAVE America Act, as most common-sense Americans are.”
Johnson suggested the only way to pass the bill, which would require Americans to demonstrate proof of citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections, is to include it in a reconciliation bill. This would allow the Senate to pass the bill with a simple majority of 51 votes instead of the usual 60 votes required to break through a filibuster.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster, but there aren’t enough GOP lawmakers who are willing to take this step.
“We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconciling the budget and you allow blue states, if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity, proposals and ideas and policies, they can draw down from a federal fund and use those funds,” Johnson said. “We're willing to invest heavily in that. And House Republicans will put together a reconciliation bill, Reconciliation 3.0, that will have that. I talked the President through that in detail this morning, as I have in the past, and he said, ‘can we do it?’ I said, ‘we can, if the Republicans will stand together.’”
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🚨 BREAKING: Speaker Johnson proposes forcing the SAVE America Act into a reconciliation package that only needs 50 votes and JD Vance in the Senate
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 24, 2026
"You have to put it on a reconciliation bill. We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconcile the budget… pic.twitter.com/z2ApJDZ3AM
For Johnson’s idea to work, House Republicans would first have to include the new grant program in their budget reconciliation bill and pass it in the House. The bill would then move to the Senate, where it could pass with only 51 votes. This would mean every Republican senator would have to vote for the measure.
Once this happens, blue states could adopt the election integrity policies in order to draw money from the federal grant fund.
Of course, the journey wouldn’t be as easy as it sounds. Republicans would have to overcome a series of obstacles to push something like this through. The biggest challenge is the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which could strip out the grant program because the provisions need to have a real budget impact rather than being primarily focused on policy changes.
The issue is that Elizabeth MacDonough, as the Senate Parliamentarian, could scuttle the idea. She has already ruled against including other GOP-backed provisions in reconciliation packages, including parts of the SAVE America Act and funding for the White House ballroom project. Several Republican lawmakers have called for her firing, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has defended her.
Still, with Senate Republicans still being unwilling to nuke the filibuster, this might be the best chance of accomplishing some of the SAVE America Act’s objectives.
