WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is pushing Republicans to shut down the government at the end of this month if Congress does not pass a GOP-backed proposal to establish new election rules nationwide.
Trump has urged congressional Republicans to tie government funding to the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote – in an effort to target non-citizens from voting, which is already illegal. And House Republican leaders are considering adopting a strategy and fighting with Democrats.
The deadline for government funding is September 30. The GOP-led House of Representatives and the Democratic-led Senate must agree on how to proceed to prevent a shutdown, and Democrats have denounced the SAVE Act as a poison pill.
“I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don’t get it,” Trump said on the “Monica Crowley Show” last week.
“It should be on the bill. And if it’s not on the bill, you want to shut it down,” he said. “So I’m not there, but you know, I have influence.”
The parties are nowhere close to agreeing on a full-year government funding package, which means that a continuous solution, or CR, is necessary as a stopgap solution. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not indicated how he plans to address the issue.
An aide to the House GOP leader announced Tuesday that tying it to the SAVE bill is being considered to unify the party.
“The length of the CR, as well as accompanying bills like the SAVE Act, could influence whether some Republicans who typically oppose spending get to vote for it,” an aide told NBC News, requesting anonymity to disclose internal considerations. “Discussions with members will continue this week. Nothing is final.”
The strategy is supported by the hard-right Freedom Caucus. Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus, has also been public to do the thing for that.
It’s a risky strategy that could lead to a shutdown on Oct. 1 if Democrats don’t budge — and they likely won’t. Republicans have been accused in the past of inciting shutdowns by pushing to pass regulations they cannot pass in the normal process.
Another source of cross-party tension: Conservatives in Congress want to pass the legislation, which runs through March 2025, as they wait to win this fall’s election. But Democrats — and some prominent Republicans — want to set a lame-duck deadline to end the talks this year.
The SAVE Act would require all voters to register to vote with proof of citizenship. Trump and allied Republicans argue the measure is aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting. Johnson and Trump introduced the measure at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.
Democrats have burned the bill, which has already passed the House as a separate measure, as “a partisan scare tactic designed to undermine confidence in our elections,” accusing the GOP of fighting over a fake issue — it’s already illegal and very rarely does non-citizens vote.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1996 “requires states to use a common voter registration form that includes an attestation under penalty of perjury that the applicant is a United States citizen,” the Bipartisan Policy Center said in a policy statement. “Illegal registration and voting attempts by non-citizens are routinely investigated by appropriate state authorities, and there is no evidence that non-citizen voting attempts were significant enough to affect the outcome of the election.”
In addition to the content of the SAVE Act, Democrats oppose the idea of tying it to the Finance Act.
“As we’ve said every time we’ve had a CR, the only way to get things done is bipartisan, and that’s what happened every time,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement. .
President Joe Biden also opposes the SAVE Act, with the White House arguing that it would “make it more difficult for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters will be purged from voter rolls.”
Trump also suggested last week that congressional Republicans should demand “more than the SAVE Act,” suggesting that the government funding bill should also include a “cap” component.
“But you should get a lot more out of this than SAVE,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
