Speaker Johnson says House will try again to advance SAVE America Act through budget reconciliation

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House plans to attempt passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act again by using a budget reconciliation bill, an approach he described as intended to help move the package through the Senate and send it to President Donald Trump. Johnson made the comments Sunday in an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream.

Johnson said President Trump has the legislation “as a top priority,” and he told Bream the House leadership aims to keep working after prior House action. The Speaker told Fox News that the House “passed it three times” previously, and he said Republicans would “try one more time on a budget reconciliation bill.” Johnson also said he expects the reconciliation strategy to be “the way to get it through the Senate” and “finally, to the president’s desk,” according to the interview report.

In Johnson’s description of what the bill’s “core components” would focus on, he said the proposal centers on proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification before casting a ballot. He also argued that tightening eligibility requirements would address “fraud” concerns and would target the issues he said were of concern “in these blue states,” as reported by The Hill.

Johnson said elements related to mail voting could be incorporated into the bill, describing an overall package that could include a prohibition on mail-in voting with exceptions. He also characterized his reconciliation plan as a way to focus the bill on voter eligibility and identification requirements rather than broader election changes, based on the Fox News interview as summarized by The Hill.

The interview report also addressed internal Republican disagreements about the SAVE America Act. Johnson responded to a vow by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to rebel against House Republican leaders over the measure, and said, according to the report, that “nobody’s mad at Anna” and that the goal is to “get this done.” The Hill report also referenced Luna’s action last month in blocking a rule vote that would have allowed House business to proceed unless the SAVE America Act was attached to a larger must-pass package.

As of publication time, the available record for this story included the reporting of Johnson’s reconciliation plan but did not include a confirmed official congressional record on a reconciliation bill number, a House floor vote date, or a finalized text. The procedural path described by Johnson would require House leadership to move the SAVE America Act into a budget reconciliation framework, and would then rely on Senate adoption of the measure under reconciliation rules.

If House Republicans proceed as Johnson described, the next steps would depend on the House leadership calendar for reconciliation consideration, including the text packaged for House action and any required procedural votes. Senate timing would also hinge on whether the final Senate vehicle includes the eligibility and identification requirements Johnson described, and whether the chamber can reach the threshold needed for final passage under reconciliation procedures.