Conservative firebrands Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) took to social media to sound the alarm on a scheme by Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “ram” the critical voter ID legislation through the budget reconciliation process, a move they warn is a legislative dead end designed to fail.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Thune suggested Republicans may resort to reconciliation to bypass Democrat obstruction and pass the SAVE America Act with just 50 votes plus Vice President JD Vance.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna issued a blistering warning on X, accusing Senate leadership of attempting to dodge a real vote on voter ID and election integrity.
“The Senate is sidestepping the SAVE America Act. During the last reconciliation, the parliamentarian stripped out a significant amount. Now the Senate is looking to play the blame game with the parliamentarian.
Under reconciliation, you can’t legislate policy, meaning you CANNOT include the SAVE America Act.
I will be a NO on reconciliation.
Stop sidestepping America, @LeaderJohnThune.
They’re literally trying everything they can to get out of voting for Voter ID and it is disgusting.”
Luna’s remarks cut to the heart of the issue: reconciliation is strictly limited to budgetary matters under Senate rules. Policy-heavy legislation, like the SAVE America Act, faces near-certain rejection under the Byrd Rule, which allows the Senate parliamentarian to strip out provisions deemed unrelated to federal spending or revenue.
Senator Mike Lee, one of the foremost constitutional experts in the upper chamber, released a blistering video explanation of why Thune’s plan is a total sham.
Lee explained that budget reconciliation is strictly for items that impact the federal budget. Because the SAVE America Act is a policy change, requiring proof of citizenship to vote, the Senate Parliamentarian will almost certainly strip it from any reconciliation bill.
“There are a lot of things that can be passed through a Senate procedure known as budget reconciliation, through which we can pass things with a simple majority vote. The SAVE America Act isn’t one of those things. It can’t pass through budget reconciliation because it’s a policy. It is not budgetary.
And even if you attach money to it, there are things at the margins we could do to help facilitate compliance with it. But the restrictions themselves have basically zero chance of meeting the standard to pass through budget reconciliation.
So look, regardless, there are other reasons out there to do budget reconciliation. Do not be fooled into thinking that we can set down the SAVE America Act and just pick it up on budget reconciliation. That’s not going to work.”
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