The House Republican leadership is attempting to revive the stalled SAVE America Act, a move opposed by conservative lawmakers who froze floor action last week.
A procedural maneuver, approved by the House Rules Committee in an 8-4 vote, would merge the annual defense policy bill with the Trump-backed election measure before sending it to the Senate.
However, the conservative holdouts, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., are withholding support, arguing that the procedural tactic would fail to force Senate action.
Luna, the leader of the SAVE protest, expressed her concerns that the bill would not be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and urged lawmakers to add a SAVE amendment to the defense bill.
The House speaker will likely need the support of House Republicans to pass a rule later Tuesday teeing up the chamber's version of the NDAA, given their slim majority.
Republican leadership has warned that continuing the floor blockade would be a "self-defeating" approach and urged lawmakers to move forward with legislation.
However, Luna and other conservative lawmakers remain opposed, indicating that they will only unlock the House floor with assurances on the SAVE America Act's fate in the Senate.
Democrats, who would like to see the rules package fail, argue that the GOP holdouts should not listen to Republican leadership, as the proposal would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
The procedural maneuver would facilitate SAVE's attachment to the NDAA without requiring lawmakers to vote on it again.
However, the election bill, which includes some of the president's SAVE priorities, such as curtailing mail-in voting and banning men in women's sports and child sex change procedures, has struggled to win unified Republican support.
The Senate has said it lacks the votes to pass the bill, and the election measure has faced opposition from several Republican senators, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Trump has sharply criticized the alleged holdouts, arguing that they "must vote to SAVE OUR COUNTRY."
