Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.
August is the sleepiest month in Washington, but don’t let the slow pace fool you. The fall funding fights are already taking shape.
Last week, the House Freedom Caucus issued an official position in favor of passing a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend existing government funding levels into early 2025, and to pair that CR with passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. It reads, in part:
“The House Freedom Caucus believes that House Republicans should return to Washington to continue the work of passing all 12 appropriations bills to cut spending and advance our policy priorities.
If unsuccessful, in the inevitability that Congress considers a Continuing Resolution, government funding should be extended into early 2025 to avoid a lame duck omnibus that preserves Democrat spending and policies well into the next administration.
“Furthermore, the Continuing Resolution should include the SAVE Act – as called for by President Trump – to prevent non-citizens from voting to preserve free and fair elections in light of the millions of illegal aliens imported by the Biden-Harris administration over the last four years.”
As HFC member Rep. Michael Cloud put it, “While we oppose passing any CR, if it’s forced upon us, we will fight to ensure the SAVE Act is part of the deal. It’s time to hold the line and demand accountability, because secure elections should be non-negotiable.”
Official positions from the Freedom Caucus require support from 80 percent of the group, which consists of close to 40 members. In an extremely narrow House majority, support or opposition from the HFC can make a break a bill unless it has substantial support from Democrats.
A CR to extend funding into 2025 would set up a showdown with Democrats in the Senate, who would prefer another year-long funding package to secure their own priorities. The shape of this funding fight depends, in large part, on the decisions of Speaker Mike Johnson. Thus far, the Speaker has said only that he was “thinking” about the various options, and that he didn’t think it would “behoove the country” to have a shutdown.
Johnson has, however, come out forcefully in favor of the SAVE Act, calling on Senator Schumer to take up and pass the House-passed legislation, which requires proof of citizenship as a criteria for voter registration.
Ben Weingarten recently looked into the scope of the problem for Real Clear Investigations, and found that tens of thousands of illegal aliens have been uncovered on voter rolls in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, and Massachusetts – some of whom had already voted.
Weingarten documents how the DOJ and FBI largely refuse to investigate violations of the law, and many state election officials, when contacted by RCI, simply said that voting as a non-citizen was already illegal and the attendant penalties should act as a deterrent. Gone unsaid is that people who break the law to come into the country in the first place are unlikely to suddenly be concerned about breaking more laws. Liberal-run cities are so unconcerned about the issue that several of them, including Washington, D.C., allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections. San Francisco recently appointed an illegal alien to serve on its Elections Commission.
Noncitizen voting imperils the sanctity of the electoral process but also the nature of democracy itself. Only citizens who have a stake in the country – its laws, culture, values, and policies – should be allowed to vote for the future that they want. But the legal changes necessary to enshrine and protect the rights of the country’s citizens will not come easily. Particularly when the left is intent on expanding the access that illegal aliens have to our elections, these changes will only be pushed through if political leverage is brought to bear.
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