The measure passed after a Trump-backed inclusion was removed.
With the Sept. 30 deadline fast approaching, both House and Senate overwhelmingly passed a funding bill to keep the government up and running — well, at least until Dec. 20. Now, the measure is off to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
However, to clear the temporary stopgap, House Speaker Mike Johnson had to make a major concession to Democrats by dropping an election security proposal known as the “SAFE Act,” which former President Donald Trump championed.
The move helped avoid a government shutdown (which Johnson described as an “act of political malpractice” ahead of an election), but it also amounted to a snub for Trump. Earlier this month, the former president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that if Republicans “don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security,” they shouldn’t hesitate to bring operations to a halt.
Before he was sent back to the drawing board, Johnson tried to pass a spending proposal that included the SAFE Act, but that effort failed. In a 220-202 vote last week, 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats opposed the bill, which would’ve required proof of citizenship to cast a ballot. The measure would’ve also funded the government through March.
Even if Trump had somehow managed to get his way with the original plan, sources told The Hill that a last-minute change would have “absolutely” led to a government shutdown because the bill would have likely faced opposition in the Democrat-controlled Senate. (One thing that did make it into the bill, however, is an additional $231 million for the Secret Service, which has been under fire after two separate assassination attempts on Trump recently.)
Despite the pushback on the SAFE Act specifically, requiring new voters to provide proof of citizenship has become a leading priority for Republicans, and it’s just one of the many 11th-hour changes the party’s trying to make to voting laws ahead of November’s election. For instance, in Georgia, a GOP-led board recently approved a rule requiring election workers to hand-count ballots at polling sites, which could delay results.
Many of these modifications can be traced back to 2020, when Trump first started pushing unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud following his loss to Biden. As a result, Republican lawmakers in swing states, like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, began rolling back access to mail-in voting and adding new voter ID requirements. But those are very much in flux — take Wisconsin, for example, where ballot drop boxes are recently legal again, though not every jurisdiction plans to use them.
Now, some experts (and those closely watching the election) are sounding the alarm that these new voting measures could confuse voters and tip the outcome in November.
“Last-minute changes to election rules — whether from a state legislature, an election authority or a court — can lead to confusion for voters and election officials,” Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy for the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, told PBS. “Election season is underway. Lawmakers, administrative bodies, and courts must recognize that.”
