Government Funding Bill, Election Integrity Implode In U.S. House

After much fanfare — and the usual GOP Republican infighting — a bill to fund a bloated federal government for six more months has gone down in flames. And with it the messaging opportunity for the next couple of weeks to spotlight the fact that congressional Democrats and their titular head in the White House really do want foreign nationals to vote in U.S. elections. 

House Resolution 9494 would have averted another phony government “shutdown” while cutting zero federal spending and adding another $1 trillion to the national debt. In exchange, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and most of his fellow Republicans sought safe passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, cleverly attached to the continuing resolution. The measure would require anyone registering to vote in federal elections to provide documented proof of citizenship. 

The gambit proved to be clever by half, losing with a final vote count of 220 nays to 202 yeas. Fourteen Republicans joined 206 Democrats in the no column, with three vulnerable Dems crossing the aisle, seven members not present, and two Republicans answering present, according to the roll call.

With razor-thin control of the House of Representatives and more internal trust issues than a “Real Housewives” of wherever episode, the odds were long on passage. That Johnson couldn’t coral enough support among conservatives who loathe the endless line of stopgap government funding bills, Pentagon boosters who fear stagnant funding for the U.S. military, and the irascible warriors who saw Kabuki theater in Johnson’s play was a surprise to few. 

“Johnson is leading a fake fight that he has no intention of actually fighting,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X earlier this week, calling the continuing resolution “classic bait and switch.” 

But the vast majority of House Republicans saw the funding plan and voting attachment absolutely necessary to show the American voter the truth: The same Democrats who flooded the country with millions of illegal immigrants are rooting for the prospects of foreign nationals voting in U.S. elections. 

Corporate media painted the final vote as an “embarrassing loss” for Johnson and took up Democrat talking points that the collapse of the Republicans’ government funding resolution was just the latest example of the GOP’s “failure to govern.”

But it’s the Democrats who should be embarrassed. Their House members, once again, failed to deliver on an election integrity measure that polling shows most Americans can get behind. An overwhelming number of Americans certainly don’t support noncitizens voting in U.S. elections. And they are terribly worried about the damage done — and undoubtedly more to come — from the open border policies of President Joe Biden and his dim-witted border czar and presidential campaign successor, Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“It’s good to put it on the floor, let people know who the people are that support it and don’t,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, according to NBC News. “I think that’s more important to call the vote, let the record show who stands where. Everyone.” 

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., agreed, expressing frustration that some Republicans put unsustainable federal spending ahead of election integrity. He said the defectors knocked out the SAVE Act, at least for this year, and squandered a golden opportunity to showcase the Democrats’ disconnect from the issues important to average Americans. 

“We could have had three weeks to show Americans what Democrats really believe,” the congressman told me in an interview fresh from the House floor Wednesday evening.  “Unfortunately, we’ll never have that standoff because [some] people would rather get their name in the paper for being recalcitrant than doing the right thing.” 

‘Be Smart, Republicans’

Democrats, again, insisted they wanted a “clean bill” without add-ons, as if there’s anything clean about the unholy waste and abuse crammed in the overfed federal budget. They found common ground with some Republicans who believe six months without massive increases in the morbidly obese budget was a bridge too far.

But mostly they repeated their tired and false lines to an accomplice media that lapped up the talking points: foreign nationals are already not allowed to vote in U.S. elections, noncitizens casting ballots never happens, if it does happen it’s extremely rare, and there’s no cause for alarm about the tens of thousands of foreign nationals showing up on states’ voter rolls. 

As the Federalist reported Wednesday, the growing threat of noncitizens voting in November’s elections and beyond is very real. A new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability breaks down the integrity cracks in the U.S. election, not the least of which is the fact that “the Biden-Harris administration is using welfare offices, DMVs, Public housing, healthcare.gov and more to register voters, and they aren’t verifying citizenship at these locations.”

“States can act too, but the SAVE Act is the only thing that can fix this problem nationwide before the election,” ” Paige Terryberry, a senior research fellow at FGA, told The Federalist. 

House Democrats also voted against the SAVE Act as a stand-alone bill earlier this summer, when it passed with a unified GOP. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who on Wednesday popped off about House Republicans wasting everyone’s time with election integrity, made sure the bill went nowhere. And Biden threatened to veto it. Why? The answer should be obvious.  

Former President Donald Trump earlier Wednesday urged Republicans to stick together and fight for the election integrity he will need to stand any chance against the combined leftist forces arrayed against him. 

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

“Only American Citizens should be voting in our Most Important Election in History, or any Election! A Vote must happen BEFORE the Election, not AFTER the Election when it is too late,” Trump wrote. “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.