The House of Representatives has been brought to a standstill as conservatives, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., use a routine procedural hurdle to force the Senate to consider the stalled election bill, SAVE America Act. The strategy has drawn sharp backlash from Republicans across the conference, who say it is accomplishing little beyond derailing their own agenda.
House Republicans were forced to punt several votes this week after the conservative splinter group used the hurdle as leverage to force the Senate to consider the bill. The tactic appeared to fall flat after the Senate left Washington for a planned recess, leaving SAVE no closer to passage. "It's a mess," said Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y. "We have to be able to continue to function."
Even after President Donald Trump urged the group to stand down, it's unclear whether his directive to stop "grandstanding" will be enough to reopen the House floor when lawmakers return Monday. Luna is pushing for the SAVE America Act to be attached to the annual defense policy bill, which could jeopardize consideration of the must-pass defense bill and doom its chances in the Senate.
Republican leadership is racing to advance government funding bills, renew a lapsed surveillance program targeting foreigners overseas, and assemble a third party-line megabill that could incorporate hundreds of millions of dollars in defense spending requested by the Pentagon. "We should be spending every bit of energy we have building it," said a senior GOP aide.
The standoff has exposed a growing divide among House Republicans over what should take priority before the fast-approaching midterms: conservatives who see SAVE as the conference's top objective despite the House having already passed multiple versions of the bill, and a larger bloc of Republicans who argue the party can't afford to sideline the rest of its agenda.
With fewer than 30 scheduled legislative days in the House left before the midterms, both camps have little time to spare. Senate Republicans have repeatedly dismissed the criticism as misguided, pointing out that the House has never voted on the president's version of the legislation.
Some Democrats are boasting that they have governed more effectively from the minority, with Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., saying, "It feels like we're passing more with the discharge approach than they're doing with regular legislation." The House Freedom Caucus has been criticized for standing in the way of the president's agenda, rather than working to pass it.
