With millions of illegal immigrants having flooded into the country during the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, election integrity has been a concern for many Republicans. Democrats, believed to be the greater beneficiaries of illegals who find their way to a voting booth, have not shared that concern.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by Texas Republican Chip Roy in the spring, would have addressed those concerns about election integrity. Democrats, not surprisingly, torpedoed the measure, which was tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s original resolution for continued government funding last week. But they were also joined by far-right Republicans – 14 of them – who oppose extending current funding levels as the U.S. debt exceeds $35 trillion.
“They did it primarily because they don't like Continuing Resolutions,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) explained on American Family Radio Tuesday.
“They don't want to continue to fund government as it is. I would prefer not to do that also, but I voted for the bill with the SAVE Act because I think the SAVE Act is so important. If we don't have free, fair elections – where it's easy to vote, but hard to cheat – we've lost our country,” he told show host Jenna Ellis.
Tiffany compared Democrats’ response to the SAVE Act with their lack of support for former President Donald Trump’s effort to get a citizenship question on census forms for 2020.
“Democrats fought that tooth and nail. Now why would you do that? To ask the question is to answer it,” Tiffany said.
The House is expected to vote on a different CR early next week. It is expected to include increases for the Secret Service and disaster relief but little else.
The Secret Service has come under criticism for its performance during two assassination attempts against Trump for its DEI hiring practices.
USSS funding necessary in spite of DEI
Even with that criticism, additional funding for the Secret Service is necessary, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) said on Washington Watch Monday.
Walberg told show host Tony Perkins he believes DEI – the acronym for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" – has cost the Service a number of qualified agents.
“I think you’ve seen some good people [in the Service] say, ‘That’s enough. It’s not my passion anymore when I can’t do what I need to do with the people who are prepared to do the same thing and on a merit system have achieved the level of excellence that I can count on them as being comrades in arms,’” Walberg said.
Additional funding could entice some to stay on the job, the GOP lawmaker argued.
“It may take some financial updating in order to encourage some others who may do the job they’re expected to do because of merit, because of capabilities. A lot of this has come because we’ve walked away from the main thing being the main thing,” Walberg added.
Rep. Tiffany, frustrated by the House’s failure to pass the SAVE Act, said having a majority in one chamber, even though that guarantees the chance to set the agenda, isn’t enough.
He used his experiences in the Wisconsin statehouse as an illustration.
“I've seen this in other instances in states where, for example, they may have a Republican legislature, but they don't have the governorship, and you don't have that same executive leadership. I think to get some of these things done that we've been frustrated with, like not being able to get the SAVE Act done in Congress, it will help to have a strong executive like Donald Trump,” Tiffany said.
The importance of winning elections has also shown up in the Senate where the Republicans have 49 seats to the Democrats’ 47, but three Independents in name caucus with the Democrats. A fourth, Sen. Krysten Sinema, counts toward the Democrats for committee purposes, according to Ballotpedia.
Walberg predicts Trump for the win
That’s enough to make Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) the majority leader. Schumer blocked key border reform legislation passed by the House in 2023.
“If you want to get government spending under control in the long run, you need a conservative administration,” Tiffany said. “When I came into the legislature in Wisconsin in 2010, the same year that Scott Walker became governor, I told people, this is going to take a series of budgets to get our $3 billion deficit fixed. We did precisely that over the course of five budgets.”
As for Walberg, he plans to support the next CR … but shakes his head at the failure of the SAVE Act.
“It would have given the new president the opportunity to put his two cents in – and I say his two cents because I think it will be Donald Trump," he offered. "He’ll have the opportunity to move our country forward along a path that worked four years ago.”
