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The SAVE Act Could Hit Filibuster Wall In New Republican-Led Senate


By: M.D. Kittle | November 19, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/19/the-save-act-could-hit-filibuster-wall-in-new-republican-led-senate/

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‘The Democrats are not into compromising on issues that will cost them power,’ Rep. Glenn Grothman said of the election integrity bill.

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Having clinched the federal government trifecta, Republicans have the opportunity in the next Congress to move through legislation they could only have dreamed of over the past six years. Will they squander this golden opportunity to pass conservative reforms?

In particular, can the SAVE Act, a key election integrity measure, be saved from the Senate filibuster? Perhaps, but there’s disagreement even among members of Wisconsin’s GOP congressional delegation on the fate of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in the upcoming session. The bill requires individuals to show documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in federal elections, as it directs states to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls. The measure passed the Republican-controlled House in July along party lines, with a scant five Democrats voting for it. Dems insisted that the protections are unnecessary because it’s already illegal for foreign nationals to vote in elections. But current law is nothing more than an honor system without the ability to require proof of citizenship at the point of registration. 

As The Federalist has reported, thousands of illegal immigrants and other foreign nationals have shown up on voter lists across the country. 

The SAVE Act has languished in a Senate that had no interest in ensuring only U.S. citizens vote in elections.  Attached to a stopgap government spending proposal in September, the bill died a miserable death in the House. 

But Nov. 5, 2024, delivered a red wave, a sea change election that will put former President Donald Trump back in the White House, place Republicans back in control of the Senate, and allow the Grand Old Party to keep its majority in the House. Expectations are high — as they were in 2017 and 2018 when Republicans also held the trifecta with Trump in charge of the executive branch — that conservatives will be able to push through an array of government reforms. 

Not so fast, some say. 

‘Tool to Defend’

“Any election law is going to be tough in the Senate,” Rep. Glenn Grothman, told me Monday on the “Vicki McKenna Show” in Milwaukee. Grothman, who represents Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District, said the filibuster, requiring 60 votes in the Senate to pass most legislation, will make it nearly impossible to get the SAVE Act, border security, and other bills through the august upper house. 

It would seem there isn’t much appetite for ditching the filibuster, especially in a Senate run by newly elected Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., a longtime protege of Senate Republican Leader and 60-vote threshold defender Mitch McConnell. Fellow McConnell stooge Texas Sen. John Cornyn recently told NBC News that there’s “unanimity” among Senate Republicans on preserving the filibuster — even if President-elect Trump again calls for senators to dump it. 

“Senators have a tendency to defend their power, just like everybody else does. I don’t know a lot of wimps in the United States Senate,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told the news outlet. “I think we’ve all lived through the possibility of losing the filibuster as a tool to defend. And I would be surprised if there were enough Republicans who thought that we should change it now.”

‘On the Other Foot’

When Democrats controlled Congress and the White House, they pushed to bypass the filibuster to pass an election integrity nightmare “voting rights act,” but couldn’t quite get the 60 votes needed to suspend the rule. That was in January 2022, just days before Dems turned over control of the House to Republicans and saw their majority in the Senate diminished to a slim 51 seats. McConnell congratulated renegade Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, for their “courage” to resist the pressure to loosen the rule. McConnell warned Democrats “that in the very near future the shoe might be on the other foot.”  Nearly three years later, Manchin and Sinema are on their way out of the Senate and the “shoe” is definitely about to be on the other foot. 

‘We Can Get There’

Grothman agrees the filibuster has “prevented a lot of horrible things from passing” under Democrat control, from packing the Supreme Court to statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. “So, I can’t say it’s horrible when the Republican senators say we’re going to require 60 votes for all policy changes, but it sure is going to be frustrating because I don’t think we can save the country unless we make changes in immigration law, and I don’t think we can save the country unless we make changes to election law.” 

The Wisconsin congressman said there is no compromising with Democrats on either issue. 

“I don’t think they’ll ever give us the SAVE act,” Grothman said. “The Democrats are not into compromising on issues that will cost them power. They just aren’t.”

Grothman’s colleague, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, said the SAVE Act is a priority and can pass both houses, but it will take negotiations to get there. Fitzgerald, who represents Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, said he’d like to see the legislation move from the Senate to the House this time around. 

“Even though [Republicans] are going to have the majority over there, there are going to be some specific senators that probably are going to need to get some of the things that were in the SAVE Act to agree to it,” the lawmaker told me last week on the “Vicki McKenna Show.” “That could become the negotiations between the houses to sign off from.” 

Rep. Bryan Steil, Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District congressman, said Republicans have an opportunity to take election security and integrity bills previously passed in the House and get them to Trump’s desk. Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, acknowledges the filibuster may well be a challenge, but he sees the potential for some Senate Democrats to cross the aisle on bills that have the backing of the majority of voters. 

“Obviously, President Biden had no interest in putting forward common-sense election integrity provisions,” Steil told me. “With a Republican Senate and a Republican House and President Trump in the White House, I’m of a view we can get there.” 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

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15 Secretaries Blow Off Congressional Subpoenas While Subpoena Refusal Lands Trump Adviser in Jail


BY: M.D. KITTLE | JULY 01, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/07/01/15-secretaries-blow-off-congressional-subpoenas-while-subpoena-refusal-lands-trump-adviser-in-jail/

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The New York Times headline seemed to gloat: “Stephen Bannon Reports to Prison After One Final Podcast Episode.” 

“The show will be his last for four months, but the longtime adviser to Donald J. Trump has no intention of surrendering his influence,” the newspaper of record for the Democratic Party and the American left declared in its online subhead on Monday. 

And so, the corporate media stories went, reporting on Bannon’s failed attempt to secure an 11th-hour reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court. Bannon surrendered to federal authorities at a Connecticut federal prison to begin serving his time on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena. Loathed by the left and ruling-class Republicans, the conservative firebrand became the latest casualty of a two-tiered system of justice in America. 

As Bannon begins his term, 15 cabinet officials in the Biden administration continue to defy congressional subpoenas, and Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States, continues to insist he’s above Congress. On June 13, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the Committee on House Administration, issued subpoenas to 15 administration cabinet members seeking documents related to Biden’s constitutionally suspect executive order commanding federal agencies to assist in voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns. The agency chiefs failed to comply by Steil’s deadline of June 26.

“Not a single agency has responded with their strategic plan or with any details about the implementation of the EO,” the Wisconsin Republican said in a statement to The Federalist. “Additionally, we know that as many as 40 outside groups assisted and advised the agencies on implementation – we have received nothing on the role these groups played in the design of the strategic plans.” 

Seems like contempt of Congress. Will the cabinet secretaries be bunking with Bannon anytime soon? Don’t count on it. 

What about Garland? 

On Monday, House Republicans sued Garland, who has refused to turn over the audio recordings of a “confused” President Joe Biden’s interview with Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur about the president’s mishandling of classified documents. Republicans want a federal court to compel Garland to follow their subpoena. The attorney general effectively told Republicans to go pound sand, citing executive privilege in refusing to release the audio — audio that could be particularly damaging to Biden after his disastrous debate performance last week. 

“The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur’s report in February, which found evidence that Biden, a Democrat, willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted,” the Associated Press reported. What the story failed to note is that the special prosecutor deemed charges unwarranted because the octogenarian president “would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Hur told the House Judiciary Committee in March that the White House pushed him to change portions of his report thought to be particularly damaging to the false narrative that Biden’s mental acuity remained sharp. 

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been in jail since March for likewise ignoring a congressional subpoena. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear either man’s emergency appeal. 

Before beginning his sentence, Bannon told reporters that he is a “political prisoner.” 

Now, who will hold Garland and his colleagues in the Biden cabinet accountable for their contemptible conduct? 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

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Over 70 Nonprofits Call On Congress To Pass Republicans’ Election Integrity Bill


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | JULY 14, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/14/over-70-nonprofits-call-on-congress-to-pass-republicans-election-integrity-bill/

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A coalition of over 70 conservative nonprofits sent a letter to House leaders on Wednesday, urging the lower chamber to pass recently introduced legislation that seeks to strengthen the integrity of U.S. elections.

“The undersigned nonprofit organizations and policy leaders write in strong support of the free speech and citizen privacy provisions in the ‘American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act’ (H.R. 4563) introduced by Congressman Bryan Steil,” the letter reads. “This thoughtful legislation protects and strengthens important First Amendment rights that Americans have enjoyed since the founding of our country.”

The document’s signatories include leaders from organizations such as the Capital Research Center, John Locke Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, among others.

Introduced on Monday, the American Confidence in Elections Act, or ACE Act, includes numerous provisions designed to close existing loopholes in America’s election system. Among the bill’s notable proposals is a provision repealing President Joe Biden’s March 2021 executive order that instructed hundreds of federal agencies to interfere in the electoral process by using taxpayer money to boost voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities. Under Executive Order 14019, the heads of each agency were additionally required to draft “a strategic plan” explaining how his or her department intends to fulfill Biden’s directive. Despite attempts by good government groups to acquire these plans, the Biden administration has routinely stonewalled such efforts by slow-walking its response to federal court orders and heavily redacting any related documents it has released.

The ACE Act would not only prohibit federal agencies from engaging in voter registration and mobilization activities; it would require them to turn over their strategic plans to Congress “[n]ot later than 30 days after” its enactment.

Other changes to federal election law include those ensuring only U.S. citizens are voting in federal elections. According to a bill summary, the ACE Act incorporates several provisions from Rep. Morgan Griffith’s, R-Va., “NO VOTE for Non-Citizens Act of 2023,” including a requirement that states permitting localities to allow non-citizen voting in their respective elections to place such non-citizens on a voter registration list “separate from the official list of eligible voters with respect to registrants who are citizens of the United States.”

A separate provision mandating “the ballot used for the casting of votes by a noncitizen in such State or local jurisdiction may only include the candidates for the elections for public office in the State or local jurisdiction for which the non-citizen is permitted to vote” was also included.

Notably, the ACE Act also ensures only U.S. governments — not private actors — are responsible for funding election administration. During the 2020 election, nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. These “Zuckbucks” were poured into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered; among other things, this was done by expanding unsupervised election protocols like mail-in voting and using ballot drop boxes. To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed toward Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive, privately funded Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.

A recently published report by Americans for Public Trust details somewhat similar efforts by Hansjörg Wyss, a left-wing Swiss billionaire who, according to the analysis, has “flooded the American political system with hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign dark money” for years. APT had previously filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Wyss in May 2021 for allegedly violating the Federal Election Campaign Act.

The ACE Act furthermore seeks to enhance congressional oversight of Washington, D.C., by enacting a series of provisions aimed at enhancing the district’s election system. Included are requirements for voter ID and regular voter roll maintenance, as well as prohibitions on ballot harvesting, ranked-choice voting, and mailing ballots “except upon a voter’s request.” The bill would also repeal a law passed by the district’s council last year that allows non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.

Provisions promoting voter ID, strengthening donor disclosure protections, and prohibiting federal “disinformation governance boards” are also included in the bill.

“We urge all Members of Congress to support the strong free speech and citizen privacy provisions in Congressman Bryan Steil’s ‘American Confidence in Elections Act,’” the conservative nonprofits wrote.

The House Administration Committee passed the ACE Act on Thursday; it now awaits a vote from the full House.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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House Republicans Highlight the Importance Of Protecting Political Speech in U.S. Elections


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | MAY 11, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/11/house-republicans-highlight-the-importance-of-protecting-political-speech-in-u-s-elections/

Rep. Bryan Steil giving opening remarks during a House Admin hearing

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Republicans on the Committee on House Administration held a hearing Thursday highlighting the importance of political speech and Americans’ confidence in U.S. elections.

“Our Founding Fathers enshrined the First Amendment in the Constitution. Unfortunately, in our highly politicized, political culture, and climate, the First Amendment has been under attack through the use of misinformation czars and cancel culture,” said Chair and Wisconsin GOP Rep. Bryan Steil. “As a result, many Americans have grown concerned that their voices will be suppressed or that their beliefs will be weaponized against them.”

As an example, Steil cited the IRS’s targeting of conservative organizations during the Obama administration. About 10 years ago, it was revealed the IRS intentionally delayed applications for “tax-exempt status from right-of-center organizations” leading up to the 2012 election. Numbering in the hundreds, these groups were “improperly subjected to baseless investigations, invasive and improper demands about their donors, and lengthy delays in processing routine paperwork.” The Department of Justice ultimately settled with dozens of these groups over the scandal in 2017.

In order to uphold the First Amendment and boost voter confidence in elections, Steil said he is focused on introducing the American Confidence in Elections Act (ACE Act), which he claims is a “federalist approach” to increasing integrity and confidence in elections. According to Steil, the bill would “prohibit the IRS and any other federal agency from asking for an organization’s donor list, creating ad-hoc standards, and applying them to ideologically opposed groups.” A version of this legislation was previously introduced during the 117th Congress.

The House Admin Committee heard from several witnesses during Thursday’s hearing, including Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer and Republican National Committeewoman who challenged Ronna McDaniel to become RNC chair earlier this year. In her remarks, Dhillon discussed the “coordinated efforts” between the federal government and private actors to influence the outcome of elections, specifically the “expanding government efforts to censor core political speech online” and “increasing use of private funds to run public election operations.”

According to Dhillon, The Twitter Files reveal “extensive shadowbanning to limit certain opinions that are disfavored by the government. Twitter relied on government actors and nonprofit partners to identify the speech it then chose to censor.”

Other Big Tech platforms, such as Facebook, have also been busted for colluding with the federal government to interfere in elections.

In addition to online censorship, Dhillon testified about the concerning nature of “Zuckbucks.” During the 2020 election, nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. These “Zuckbucks” were poured into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered, such as by expanding unsupervised election protocols like mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes. To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed toward Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive, privately funded Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.

“Distrust in elections is not a partisan issue. Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed a historic level of distrust in our elections, and I hope that a renewed commitment by Congress to protecting freedom of speech in elections will help alleviate that trend and increase public confidence in America’s elections,” Dhillon said.

Predictably, House Democrats used Thursday’s hearing to play political games, attacking Republicans and spreading numerous falsehoods regarding conservative-led election integrity efforts. During their respective questioning times, Reps. Terri Sewell of Alabama and Norma Torres of California repeated the debunked claim that Republican-backed election integrity laws are suppressing the ability of Americans to vote. While Sewell falsely asserted such laws disproportionately suppress racial minorities and disabled voters, Torres went on to bizarrely invoke the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying it was a “really dark day in Americans’ history.”

Meanwhile, ranking member and New York Democrat Rep. Joe Morelle used his time to further the left’s ongoing smear campaign against originalist U.S. Supreme Court justices, specifically Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. During his opening statement, Morelle referenced ProPublica’s non-story about Thomas having a wealthy friend and suggested the justice’s prior rulings on cases involving financial disclosures weren’t based on proper jurisprudence but on nefarious, personal bias. The New York Democrat also wasted his time attacking just-indicted GOP Rep. George Santos and interrogating witnesses on whether they believed Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

Morelle had employed this same “gotcha” tactic over the 2020 contest in previous committee hearings.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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House Republicans Highlight Luzerne County’s Voter Suppression in The 2022 Midterms


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | MARCH 28, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/28/house-republicans-highlight-luzerne-countys-voter-suppression-in-the-2022-midterms/

House Republicans holding a committee hearing on Luzerne County, PA's election administration
House Republicans held a hearing on Tuesday, highlighting the failures of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, election officials in managing the locality’s 2022 election.

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Republicans on the Committee on House Administration held a hearing Tuesday highlighting the failures by Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, election officials in managing the locality’s 2022 election.

“For years, several of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have claimed that states like Florida and Georgia — that have implemented voter integrity laws — are suppressing voters. … However, they have never produced a single voter who wanted to vote and was unable to,” said Chair and GOP Rep. Bryan Steil. “Contrast that with today, as we hold a hearing with evidence that voters who wanted to legally vote were turned away from the polls.”

On the morning of Election Day, numerous precincts throughout Luzerne County reported ballot paper shortages, leading to long wait lines and voters being turned away by election workers. In response, a local judge issued an order allowing polling places to stay open an additional two hours, or until 10 p.m. While Luzerne’s elections board originally declined to certify the election results (2-2-1), the board ultimately moved forward with certification following legal threats from left-wing law firms. Democrats, who often decry GOP-backed election integrity initiatives such as voter ID as “voter suppression,” have largely remained silent on the disenfranchisement of Luzerne voters.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Jim Bognet, the 2022 Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district — of which Luzerne is a part — referred to the Nov. 8 election in Luzerne as a “disaster” and criticized county election officials for their mismanagement of the contest and its aftermath.

“Luzerne County had to walk into court and admit that many polling places were effectively closed and had no paper to record votes on. In Luzerne County, the polls were closed on election day, disenfranchising voters,” Bognet said. “Voters across Luzerne County have called me and expressed their outrage that there has been no accountability or responsibility taken 4.5 months after the election, and officials still will not answer questions.”

Shortly after the election, Luzerne’s board of elections and registration asked the county district attorney to investigate the matter. Three Luzerne election officials declined the House committee’s invitation to testify on Tuesday after the county law office recommended they not attend due to the ongoing investigation.

In his remarks, Bognet accused Luzerne officials of using the investigation as a “shield” to avoid answering questions from constituents.

“My understanding is that the district attorney is doing a criminal investigation. Who knows if criminal activity occurred, he’ll investigate that. But what about gross incompetence? What about forgetting to order ballot paper?” he said.

During his remarks, Luzerne citizen Benjamin Herring echoed similar criticisms of county officials, noting “a complete lack of respect and understanding to what being a public servant is.”

“When does accountability and transparency become more than just a punch line or calculated posturing?” Herring asked. “I hold hope that the Luzerne County District Attorney will get to the bottom of this and present all of what is discovered to the citizens of Luzerne County. Anything less will be shameful, unacceptable, and would require more action on our part to hold the line on accountability.”

Predictably, Democrats on the committee used the hearing to play political games and advance trite talking points. During her allotted time, Alabama Democrat Rep. Terri Sewell argued that the federal government should provide more funding to states for elections. In her comments, she called on her colleagues to “look at the president’s budget,” specifically pointing to $5 billion allocated for the Election Assistance Commission “to provide grants” for state election administration.”

During the 2020 election, left-wing groups like the Center for Tech and Civic Life received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. These “Zuckbucks” were poured into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered, such as by expanding unsecured election protocols like mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes. To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed towards Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.

While acknowledging the disaster in Luzerne, ranking member and New York Democrat Rep. Joe Morelle also decided to inject partisan politics into the hearing. After repeatedly questioning the need for the hearing, Morelle attempted to rehash the 2020 election by asking Bognet whether he believes Joe Biden won the contest.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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