Conservatives expect Johnson will embrace proof-of-citizenship voting in anti-shutdown measure

Hard-line conservatives expect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will embrace their favored tactic by bringing a stopgap bill to the House floor next week that includes a proof-of-citizenship voting bill and would extend government funding into 2025.

Such a move would not only grant a win to the House GOP’s conservative wing, but would tee up a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, which both object to the voting bill. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to prevent a shutdown.

Johnson’s office has not confirmed the funding plan, but Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) — a key member of the House Freedom Caucus who has been in discussions with leadership as he advocates for the strategy — is publicly expressing confidence about the next step.

“Mike Johnson appears ready and willing to do it, and that's where we currently sit,” Roy said in an appearance Tuesday on the "War Room" podcast.

“When we get back next week, I believe that Mike Johnson will put on the floor a continuing resolution into 2025,” Roy added.

The Freedom Caucus took an official position in August in support of attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill led by Roy to require proof of citizenship to register to vote, to a continuing resolution (CR) that extends into 2025. 

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), another Freedom Caucus member, said that while he has not heard directly from the Speaker, he is hearing from “very good sources” that the SAVE Act will be included in a CR package.

“We’ll vote on that this coming week and get it to the Senate and let them do what they may,” Norman said, adding he was “excited about it.”

Roy said that Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) is working with Johnson’s office on the details of a continuing resolution that addresses top concerns.

Prioritizing the SAVE Act puts focus on a major Republican messaging point about voting integrity in advance of the November election, and the bill has been supported by former President Trump, who in July urged Republicans to pass the bill “or go home and cry yourself to sleep.” The House passed the legislation as a stand-alone bill in July with the support of a handful of Democrats.

While it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote, SAVE Act advocates argue that there are not enough safeguards in place to ensure only those eligible are casting ballots. 

But it is highly unlikely that Democrats and President Biden would accept such a bill.

The Biden administration put out a statement of administration policy opposing the SAVE Act, saying that current laws to prevent noncitizen voting work as intended and that the bill risks purging eligible voters from the voter rolls.

“If Democrats are unwilling to fund government into March … and their big hang-up is the fact that they want noncitizens to vote, let them take that to the American people. They want to shut government down over that, that should be on them,” Roy told The Hill. 

It is not just Senate Democrats, though. Axios reported last week that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also opposes the plan. Other House Republicans have expressed skepticism about pairing GOP proposals with a government funding bill, too.

But the length of the stopgap is perhaps the more critical portion. Hard-line conservatives want government funding to extend into 2025 in order to avoid an end-of-year omnibus spending package under a lame-duck Biden presidency, hoping to set a potential new Trump administration up to quickly slash spending.

“That's a fight I can take to the people,” Roy told The Hill of the SAVE Act and CR-into-2025 plan. “And then you kind of play it out based on what President Trump and those want to do as we head in October about, you know, where you land the plane.”