House conservatives are mounting a push that could extend the looming partial government shutdown if the Senate does not accept a key election integrity measure backed by many on the right.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening that she and a ‘handful’ of House Republicans are pushing to get the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act added to the spending compromise that’s expected to pass the Senate and be sent to the House on Friday.
The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and passed the House in April 2025, would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.
‘I know for a fact that if the SAVE Act is a standalone vote in the Senate, just like every other good piece of legislation, it’s going to die,’ Luna told Fox News Digital.
She declined to say how many House GOP lawmakers supported her effort but said, ‘It’s definitely a number that’s big enough to completely halt all floor proceedings.’
‘There’s some Republicans that are just straight-up coming out saying, ‘We’re going to basically be with Luna, and we will not be voting for any piece of legislation, specifically on these appropriations, that does not include the SAVE Act because of the fact that we know it’s not going to survive in the Senate,” Luna said.
Rep. William Timmons, R-N.C., who is also backing the effort, told Fox News Digital, ‘If the Democrats can play this game and shut the government down yet again, I think that we need to hold their feet to the fire.’
‘The American people want us to do our job. Government shutdowns are terrible, and so if [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] is going to shut the government down, I think it’s appropriate to…say this is your shutdown, and here’s the way to reopen,’ Timmons said.
The push could cause complications in the House, which is expected to consider the Senate’s federal funding compromise early next week.
Senate Democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to fully fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2026 amid fallout over President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.
Federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in the Midwest city during separate demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown. In response, Democrats threatened to hold up a massive federal funding bill that also includes dollars for the departments of War, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation and others unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was stripped out.
The deal reached would fund all but DHS through Sept. 30, while funding DHS with a two-week extension of current spending levels to give Congress time to hash out a compromise that would include stricter guardrails on immigration enforcement agencies under the department’s purview.
With some conservatives already complaining about the deal, it’s likely that Democratic support will be needed to pass the legislation back in the House.
It’s not clear if attaching the SAVE Act to that package will alienate Democrats, however.
On the other side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will need nearly all Republicans to move in lockstep for the package to survive a procedural hurdle called a ‘rule vote.’ It’s a House-wide test vote of sorts that allows for debate and final consideration of a measure, but normally falls along party lines.
Luna would only need a small group of Republicans to tank the rule, which could extend the partial shutdown that’s already expected to happen beginning Feb. 1.
House GOP leaders could sidestep the rule vote altogether, however, by putting the bill up under suspension — a mechanism for fast-tracking legislation in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds.
‘I don’t think that they would do that. I mean, that would be really problematic for them,’ Luna said.
But if successful, the bill would have to be sent back to the Senate for another vote.