President Trump canceled a scheduled housing bill signing Wednesday, declaring he would not put pen to legislation until the Senate passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Florida Representative Byron Donalds backed Trump’s demand without qualification. “I’m with President Trump. It’s time to stop the excuses, secure our ballots, and get this on the president’s desk. The time for playing games is over. PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” he wrote.
Virginia Representative Morgan Griffith went further, calling for structural changes to Senate rules. “President Trump came to Capitol Hill to push for the Senate to act on the SAVE America Act,” he wrote. “I support filibuster and parliamentarian reform to get commonsense voting ID policies into law!”
The housing legislation Trump refused to sign passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities. If he declines to sign within ten days and Congress adjourns, it could fall to a pocket veto. Senate leaders plan pro forma sessions during the two-week recess beginning Friday — stopping short of a formal adjournment that would trigger that outcome.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has resisted Trump’s repeated calls to abolish the filibuster to advance the SAVE Act. The bill has failed five floor votes. Asked Wednesday about Trump’s decision to cancel the signing, Thune offered only this: “At this point, I don’t have any observations about that.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said reconciliation is the only realistic path. ” Chuck Schumer will never vote for that. You have to put it on a reconciliation bill.” He said he walked Trump through the strategy that morning. “He said, ‘Can we do it?’ I said, ‘We can, if the[y]will stand together.'”
Trump has also refused to sign a renewal of surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without the SAVE Act attached.
Trump and House Freedom Caucus Members argue the SAVE Act’s provisions requirement of voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote are critical to preserving American democracy.
With time running out to pass the SAVE Act in this Congress, Trump and House Freedom Caucus members are threatening to trigger the nuclear option.
Whether reconciliation can deliver what the filibuster has blocked will define the next phase of negotiations as Congress heads into recess.
