The chair of the House committee overseeing elections is circulating a list of proposals to include in a budget reconciliation bill as Senate Republicans and the White House move to rev up the party-line process to pass pieces of a contentious GOP voting bill in the coming months.
The list from House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) is a peek at what sort of provisions Republicans could try to pass under reconciliation, which is strictly reserved for legislation with a direct fiscal impact. The party-line effort is likely to rule out big portions of the SAVE America Act, the bill President Donald Trump has called his “No. 1 priority” for the year.
Steil’s proposals would mandate or financially incentivize states to implement voter ID laws, require proof of citizenship for voter registration, share voter data with federal agencies for verification and conduct post-election audits, among other items, according to a document obtained by POLITICO being circulated with GOP leaders and several Republican offices. It’s an effort to try to secure major pieces of Trump’s election-related demands.
In some cases, states would lose funding under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, a law passed in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election that provides federal money to help administer elections, if they fail to comply.
It’s not clear if parts of Steil’s proposals would in fact pass muster under the party-line reconciliation process. The Senate parliamentarian’s guidance typically determines what is and isn’t included.
Three people granted anonymity to discuss the brewing deal Senate Republicans and Trump discussed Monday evening, to pass Homeland Security funding now and SAVE America Act provisions later, say the most likely outcome for a new reconciliation bill is adding money for ballot security measures and potentially incentivizing more states to enact voter ID requirements. Steil’s list includes some of those pieces.
Under Steil’s proposal, states using noncompliant IDs would be ineligible to receive HAVA funding — consistent with Steil’s bill, the Make Elections Great Again Act, which overlaps with the SAVE America Act but also has no current path to passage in the Senate.
His effort to mandate proof-of-citizenship requirements would appropriate funds to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to amend the national voter registration form to require “Documentary Proof of Citizenship” such as a passport or military ID. States would have to forfeit HAVA funds if they fail to share data with federal agencies to verify voter registration data, a move officials in several states have refused to make.
Besides the Senate parliamentarian, any effort to pass elections provisions on party lines will face other obstacles. The decision to pursue a new reconciliation bill in lieu of trying to pass the SAVE America Act in full is already generating major pushback from conservative hard-liners.
The House Freedom Caucus took a shot at Senate Republicans Tuesday, arguing the brewing DHS deal means Senate Republicans are opting for “failure theater” and “gaslighting” instead of fighting to pass the bill Trump has endorsed. Even GOP senators and senior aides are privately cautioning the fresh reconciliation push could fall apart, stranding the elections overhaul and other GOP priorities.
