While Congress enjoys an undeserved Fourth of July break, critical election security legislation backed by the vast majority of Americans remains on life support.
Noodle-spined Republicans checked out without moving on the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) America Act and did nothing to stop hundreds of millions of dollars of Medicaid money from flowing back to the nation’s largest peddler of abortions.
A lack of action on those two fronts alone could be enough to depress conservative turnout in November’s elections, and could prove costly to the GOP’s hopes of holding power in Congress.
‘The Senate Sucks’
“We want to keep America great, and we will do so by approving the Save America Act,” President Donald Trump said during his storm-delayed Independence Day speech. “You won’t have cheating on the elections anymore, it’s very simple.”
Trump’s confidence on passage seems misplaced given a severe spine shortage in congress.
The Republican-controlled Senate in particular just can’t be bothered with protecting U.S. elections. Democrats want nothing to do with legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to vote in U.S. elections. And they don’t want limits on mail-in ballots or an end to extended ballot counting. Several Senate Republicans don’t want to waste their precious time fighting for the popular election integrity bill.
“Eighty percent of the American people want the SAVE America Act to pass. Not 80 percent of Republicans — 80 percent of the American people. And the only organization that refuses to act is the United States Senate,” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told reporters late last week at the Capitol as a stalled House broke early for the extended recess. “What is happening in the U.S. Senate is laziness. And, quite frankly, it’s disgusting.”
A clearly frustrated Donalds said what a lot of Americans are thinking: “The Senate sucks.”
‘Derailing the Trump Agenda’
Trump has been crystal clear: He want Republicans to find a way — any way — to move the legislation to his desk. He sent a powerful reminder before the Fourth of July holiday when he refused to sign a bipartisan “housing affordability” bill that he called a “big yawn.” Trump has threatened to not sign the bill, insisting Congress first focus on his no. 1 domestic priority: bringing confidence back to federal elections.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday said the House will pass another version of the SAVE America Act — one that could help the shiftless Senate get around the Democrats’ filibuster wall.
“The president has that as a top priority, and so do I,” the Louisiana Republican told Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream in an interview. “We passed it three times in the House. We’re going to try one more time on a budget reconciliation bill, and I think that will be the way to get it through the Senate, and finally, to the president’s desk.”
But Senate RINOs have previously blocked efforts to attach the SAVE Act to reconciliation bills, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly whined that he doesn’t have enough Republican votes to force Democrats’ hands through a “talking filibuster.”
Mega RINO Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., again poo-poohed Johnson’s reconciliation plan on Monday.
“Let’s assume you only allow early voting in the month of October. Then do you honestly believe that we can have this thing up in 50 states? There’s no funding. There’s no specific implementation instructions,” Tillis told the Raleigh News & Observer last week.
The outgoing two-term senator with no love lost for the president doesn’t have to worry about re-election. But some of his fellow Republicans do. Their lackluster performance, particularly on the popular SAVE America Act, could prove costly to the GOP’s efforts to turn out the vote in critical midterms and, ultimately, to hold the Senate majority.
“Who needs Democrats when you have your own party derailing the Trump agenda?” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Politico last week.
‘Deeply Frustrating’
Meanwhile, Republicans bolted without dealing with a year-long ban on federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. The prohibition, included in the One Big Beautiful Bill, expired on the Fourth of July. Now, the abortion giant may again tap into up to $800 million in taxpayer funds to support its operations. While the funds aren’t supposed to go to subsidize abortions, federal funding is ever fungible.
Republicans, most of whom like to push their pro-life bona fides, half-heartedly tried to extend the ban in this year’s contentious immigration law enforcement bill, but it was eventually dropped. Jessica Prol Smith, government relations director for Heartbeat International, the world’s largest network of pregnancy help organizations, told The Federalist that the votes may be tough in a midterm election year, but Republicans’ failure to stop taxpayer money going to Planned Parenthood could depress conservative turnout.
“We were deeply grateful for the win that we had, but this is a clear step backwards, And it’s deeply disappointing, deeply frustrating because the votes were there a year ago,” Smith said. “I mean having worked for a member of Congress it is much easier to convince your boss to stick his or her neck out there on a difficult vote if they’ve done so in the past.”
Courage seems to be in short supply this session.
They Went on Vacation Instead
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has tried to bring back some backbone to Republicans more nervous about losing votes from pro-abortion voters than standing up for life. In a letter sent to senators last month, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser reminded lawmakers that a nationwide poll found 75 percent of Republican primary voters support defunding Planned Parenthood.
“Budget reconciliation remains the only viable legislative path to continuing to defund Big Abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser wrote.
The abortion giant in its annual report for 2024-25, boasted that it carried out 434,450 abortions. While Planned Parenthood cries poverty, it announced that it would spend $40 million in the 2024 election cycle.
“For a time they were getting 39 percent of their overall funding from the government. That is deeply problematic,” Heartbeat International’s Smith said in an interview with The Federalist.
Republican lawmakers could do something about defunding Planned Parenthood and passing the SAVE America Act. They went on vacation instead. In the coming months, they’ll have to answer to their voters who might just put them out of work.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
