House set to vote as GOP leaders hope NDAA, SAVE America Act gambit unlocks floor

House Republican leaders on Tuesday afternoon will find out whether their plan to tie the annual defense authorization bill to a voter ID bill pushed by President Trump will be enough to satisfy hard-line GOP members who ground the House to a halt last week.

The chamber is scheduled to vote at 1:30 p.m. on a procedural rule to tee up a vote on the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That rule would tie the NDAA to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act — which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID to cast a ballot — and send them to the Senate as a single package.

While the House has passed the SAVE America Act multiple times, hard-line Republicans had derailed House action last week as they and Trump called on the Senate to pass the voting bill. The gambit to tie the SAVE America Act to the NDAA is an attempt to prevent the issue from similarly halting this week’s work.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday said that the plan to merge the bills is “the most efficient, effective way to do it.”

“There’s no need to add an amendment to the NDAA. Let’s just have the full bill that’s still sitting there and has been transmitted to the Senate, let’s send it again. Let’s put it as........

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