House Republican leaders are making another attempt to salvage the stalled SAVE America Act after conservative holdouts froze floor action last week, but the bloc that blocked progress is withholding support for a new rescue plan. The House Rules Committee on Monday approved a rule in an 8-4 vote that would merge the annual defense policy bill with the Trump-backed election measure in a rare procedural maneuver before sending the package to the Senate.
The effort faces immediate opposition from the same conservatives who initiated last week's blockade. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., the leader of the SAVE protest in the lower chamber, argued Monday that the procedural tactic would fail to force Senate action and instead called for a SAVE amendment to be added directly to the defense bill text.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative holdouts rejected leadership's proposal and doubled down on their demands. Luna wrote on X that the only way to ensure Senate passage is to include SAVE in the NDAA bill text directly.
"The only way to ensure the Senate passes this is to make sure it's in the bill text of the NDAA, meaning that my amendment(s) must be made an order," Luna wrote. "I'm not trying to be difficult, but this is what 80% of Americans want and what we promised the American people, so I stand by my decision."
Standing alongside Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who also joined the SAVE protest, Luna defended her position as legitimate legislating rather than obstruction.
"If people elected us to just come up here and vote in line with what the party wants, then it would be a whole lot different," Luna told reporters Monday.
Speaker Mike Johnson warned that continuing the floor blockade would be counterproductive. "It doesn't make any sense," Johnson told reporters. "We have to move forward with legislation and that's what I'll be telling them all."
President Donald Trump weighed in Monday on Truth Social, criticizing five Republican senators he said were blocking SAVE: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "There can be no more excuses!" Trump wrote.
What the Left Is Saying
House Democrats argued the GOP's maneuver would not survive Senate consideration. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Conn., told the Rules Committee that merging SAVE with the NDAA would not prevent the Senate from stripping it out.
"Let me be clear, the Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out," McGovern said during Monday's debate. "They've already said that merging it with the NDAA bill doesn't prevent that. Nothing in this rule will prevent that."
McGovern added: "There is a 0% chance SAVE ends up in the NDAA because of this rule today. So this is a 'cover-your-behind' maneuver, if you will."
Democrats have indicated they would prefer to see the rules package fail and have pointed to the Senate's resistance as evidence that the election measure lacks a viable path forward.
What the Numbers Show
The House Rules Committee approved the merged rule in an 8-4 vote Monday. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the panel who was among last week's conservative holdouts, did not participate in the vote.
House Republicans hold a slim majority in the chamber. Because procedural votes typically fall along party lines, Speaker Johnson can afford to lose only a handful of GOP defections on Tuesday's expected floor vote.
The SAVE America Act faces additional hurdles in the Senate, where Republican leaders have said it lacks sufficient support and would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster. The election measure has struggled to win unified Republican backing, let alone the bipartisan threshold required for passage in the upper chamber.
The Bottom Line
Tuesday's vote will determine whether House Republicans can advance their legislative agenda before the July 4 recess or face a prolonged floor freeze with lawmakers sent home early. If Johnson fails to secure enough conservative support, the path forward for both the NDAA and the SAVE Act remains unclear.
The standoff highlights the tension between Trump's priorities and the practical limits of passing controversial legislation through a closely divided Congress. Conservative holdouts have shown willingness to use procedural tools to extract policy concessions, while leadership must balance competing factions within the GOP conference.