A bold gambit by House Republican leaders to tie the annual defence authorisation bill to a contentious voter restriction measure collapsed on Tuesday after 14 Republicans broke ranks.
Lawmakers voted 198-224 against a procedural rule that would have allowed debate to begin on the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act while combining it with the SAVE America Act before sending the package to the Senate.
The failed vote effectively stalls the House’s version of the FY27 NDAA, which authorises $1.15 trillion in base budget funding for the Department of Defense.
Speaker Mike Johnson had unveiled a plan to combine both measures after they each passed the House separately, sending them to the Senate together through a special process called MIRVing, hoping to satisfy hardline conservatives.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who had initially championed combining the two bills, reversed her position, arguing the approach would leave the SAVE Act vulnerable to being stripped out in the Senate.
The SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, has been championed by President Donald Trump as his signature election legislation.
Rep. Chip Roy said his vote against the rule was less about the SAVE America Act and more about pressuring GOP leadership to bring up border security legislation before the July 4 recess.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also switched his vote to “no,” a procedural manoeuvre that allows Republican leaders to bring the measure back to the floor at a later date.
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, used a floor speech to denounce the Republican strategy as a “shell game” destined to fail regardless of the outcome.
“It’s the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, pretending to do magic, and here’s the truth: The SAVE Act will not become law, even if this rule manages to pass,” McGovern said on the House floor, noting the Senate had already moved ahead with its own NDAA version without the SAVE Act attached.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the Senate’s own version of the NDAA before the upper chamber left for recess, positioning it for debate when senators return during the week of July 13.
Luna indicated she would support the rule if House leaders allowed her to add an amendment embedding key portions of the SAVE Act, including voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, directly into the NDAA text.
Johnson initially told reporters that House members would remain in Washington through Thursday while GOP leaders worked to secure the votes needed to advance the rule.
Republican leaders later reversed course, announcing members would depart for the Independence Day holiday that evening, leaving the timeline for NDAA passage deeply uncertain.
Separately, House Republicans are also exploring a fast-track reconciliation process to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass Trump’s voting restrictions through a grant programme incentivising states to adopt stricter election rules.
Many Senate Republicans have expressed scepticism about pushing further legislation through the reconciliation process this year, and it remains unclear whether Trump would support voting restrictions administered through a grant programme structure.