Republican voter ID bill bogs down crucial Pentagon funding

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

House Republicans’ voter ID bill has once again derailed progress of critical legislation in Congress, this time stalling a $1.1 trillion Pentagon funding bill.

The must-pass National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2027, which authorizes annual funding levels for national security and defense projects, is normally undertaken in a spirit of bipartisanship.

But just like the attempt to reauthorize the federal government’s international surveillance powers via FISA Section 702, a vocal handful of Republican lawmakers aligned with President Donald Trump’s policy wishes have ground the NDAA’s progress to a halt.

A vote on a rule to advance the House’s version of the NDAA failed Tuesday when 14 Republicans voted against it alongside every Democrat.

Every lawmaker who opposed the bill did so because of a concession that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made to Republican hardliners — merging provisions in the Trump-endorsed SAVE America Act with the NDAA.

Democrats opposed the addition, while the 14 Republicans claimed it was insufficient, meaning Johnson’s unsuccessful move to appease Republican holdouts cost him the support of all Democrats as well.

Johnson was facing the threat of a floor shutdown by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and a handful of other Republicans. They had pledged last week to block all further House floor action unless Johnson attached the SAVE America Act to the NDAA as an amendment.

The SAVE America Act, which would strengthen voter identification requirements nationwide, faltered and effectively died in the Senate months ago after it became clear that every Democratic senator would oppose it.

Since then, Trump and Republican hardliners like Luna have tried to get the bill passed by any means possible, derailing FISA Section 702 reauthorization and delaying bipartisan housing legislation from taking effect.

To placate the group, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the committee proposed a rule to merge the NDAA with separate legislation mandating voter ID, sending it as one package to the Senate.

Hours before the vote, however, hardliners announced that the rule wasn’t enough, with Luna dubbing it “a procedural head fake.”

“This does not do anything but guarantee the Senate will EASILY TAKE OUT SAVE America from the NDAA,” she wrote on X. “If we do it as an amendment, the way that I proposed it, the Senate would need 60 votes to pass the legislation without SAVE America attached. Meaning it would be harder for them to TAKE it out.”

Because the House and Senate must ultimately meld their respective versions of the NDAA into a final product that will pass both chambers.

Luna and other Republicans are concerned that the voter ID provisions will simply be stripped during the negotiations process, given that Republican leaders can’t afford to bet on at least seven Senate Democrats supporting an NDAA with such a contentious policy rider.

The SAVE America Act would require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, require voters to show photo ID when casting a ballot in a federal election, and mandate states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.

Democrats have called the legislation an act of voter suppression, arguing that instances of illegal voting are rare and that stronger proof of citizenship requirements can disenfranchise rural and low-income Americans.

Republicans deny the accusations, calling legislation like the SAVE America Act a “common sense” step towards increasing election security.

Their push for stricter verification measures is a response to multiple states finding that noncitizens had cast votes in the 2024 federal election. Though election officials are supposed to verify voters’ citizenship status on the backend, illegal votes are sometimes already counted before ineligible voters are identified, which happened in Michigan at least 15 times in 2024.

Given the crucial nature of the NDAA, Republican House leadership will likely keep trying to pass the rule over the next couple of days.

Besides the usual investments in munitions restocking, shipbuilding, military construction, nuclear infrastructure, and technology innovation research, the NDAA enhances cybersecurity coordination with Israel.

It also authorizes an across-the-board servicemember pay raise of 3.6% and funding for supply chain security and critical mineral mining workforce initiatives, among other measures.

Additionally, Republicans secured a measure to officially change the Department of Defense’s name to the Department of War, which the Trump administration has pushed for.

Federal budget watchdog organizations like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget have urged lawmakers to rein in military spending, particularly since the Pentagon is the only federal agency to never pass an audit.

The Trump administration has asked Congress to approve a total of $1.5 trillion in defense funding for fiscal year 2027 – $1.14 trillion via the annual appropriations process, which the NDAA reflects, and the remaining $350 billion via budget reconciliation.

The Pentagon also recently asked Congress for nearly $88 billion in supplemental funding to cover the costs of the U.S.-Iran conflict.