Getting this act out is critical to free and fair elections in the future. Right now, we don’t even know whether the people voting are legal citizens because some states don’t require ID. Who besides a progressive is okay with this? Maybe a few Democrats are on the borderline of being progressive, but the rest of America wants fair elections.
Why won’t politicians vote for this, especially those on the right? I wish I had the answer, but I don’t. What I do believe is that all those against voter ID might well be in their position from voter fraud. After all, you need an ID for booze, to get married, to drive, to receive benefits, and to work. So let’s hear the excuses by fighting it out on the floor so we see where everyone stands. All IMO.
“President Trump is backing the House Republican leadership’s plan to use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass portions of the SAVE America Act after an initially cool reception to the idea.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Mr. Trump urged Republican leaders to make the budget package — dubbed “reconciliation 3.0” because it would be the third such effort this Congress — their No. 1 priority.
“The SAVE AMERICA ACT, which everyone is asking for, paired with the full funding of our Great Department of War, can be passed very quickly, ensuring that the United States of America stays FREE for Generations to come,” he said on social media.
The president’s push to use the reconciliation process to pass the SAVE America Act is a slight reversal. Mr. Trump has been urging Senate Republicans to scrap the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to clear a filibuster or to use the talking filibuster rules to circumvent it.
Asked last month whether he would consider using reconciliation to pass some pieces of the bill, Mr. Trump said, “No, not really.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, who has been pitching the reconciliation strategy for weeks, appears to have persuaded the president to get on board.
Because policies enacted through reconciliation must have a budgetary impact, Mr. Johnson has floated creating a grant program that would give states a financial incentive to adopt requirements that Americans must show proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.
Some Republicans have argued that this would take the teeth out of the legislation, as states could simply decline to participate.
Mr. Trump’s post did not address the grant program idea or otherwise specify which pieces of the SAVE America Act must be included in the reconciliation package.
The House-passed version of the bill that has stalled in the Senate amid a Democratic filibuster and opposition from a few Republican senators did not include a ban on universal mail-in ballots or certain transgender policies that Mr. Trump has sought.
Mr. Johnson said he believes the president is willing to forgo those priorities if Republicans can pass proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements.
“He would like to add the prohibition of mail-in balloting, except for exceptions like if somebody is deployed overseas or they’re ill or can’t get to the polling place, but he understands that one is a bigger reach,” the speaker said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“If we can get proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote, that eliminates so much of the problem, all the fraud and everything that everybody’s concerned about in our elections, particularly, frankly, in these blue states,” Mr. Johnson said.”