House Passes Funding Bill With SAVE Act Attached, Setting Up Senate Fight
A major election integrity proposal championed by President Donald Trump cleared another hurdle Wednesday, but its toughest test may still lie ahead.
House Republicans approved legislation that not only funds key national security agencies but also sets up what could become one of the biggest legislative battles of the year over proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting.
The House voted 217-209 to pass a fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill funding the State Department, national security programs, and other federal priorities.
One Democrat joined Republicans in supporting the measure, while one Republican voted against it.
To satisfy conservative lawmakers, House leaders attached the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to the legislation before sending it to the Senate using a legislative procedure known as MIRVing.
The SAVE America Act would require individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
It would require voters to present identification when casting a ballot.
President Trump has repeatedly described the legislation as one of his administration’s top priorities, arguing it is necessary to strengthen election integrity and ensure that only eligible citizens participate in federal elections.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain.
Several reports indicate that senators are likely to remove the SAVE America Act from the appropriations package before they consider final passage.
Even so, House Republicans say attaching the proposal keeps pressure on the Senate to act.
“The pressure’s gonna be on the Senate,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital.
“Certain senators are gonna have to find a real come-to-Jesus moment to pass the strongest reconciliation package possible.”
The funding bill marks the third appropriations measure approved by the House this year.
Lawmakers previously passed legislation funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs, including more than $2 billion for improvements to VA medical facilities and national cemeteries.
The House also approved an agriculture appropriations bill providing $1.16 billion for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service while strengthening efforts to track foreign ownership of American farmland.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans continue searching for a procedural path that could allow at least portions of the SAVE America Act to survive Senate rules governing budget reconciliation.
Under the Senate’s Byrd Rule, reconciliation bills can remove provisions that are considered unrelated to federal spending or revenue..
Republican lawmakers have acknowledged the SAVE America Act, as currently written, would likely face significant procedural hurdles.
One option under discussion would create a federal grant program allowing states to voluntarily adopt many of the election integrity measures contained in the legislation.
Supporters believe that the approach could better satisfy Senate procedural requirements.
“If this provision is written the right way — tied to states that already have voter ID on the books, not a new federal enforcement — I believe it can survive reconciliation’s rules,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital.
Marshall said, however, that he wants Congress to go even further.
“But I’m not satisfied with a Band-Aid. We need Democrats and every Republican to actually vote yes on voter ID, on proof of citizenship, and on real guardrails for mail-in ballots,” he said.
House Administration Committee members have now been tasked with developing the election-related provisions and have until Sept. 11 to complete their work.
Despite skepticism from some Republicans who have described the legislation as “dead on arrival” in the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed confidence the effort will ultimately succeed.
“We’ll get it done,” Johnson said.
With the House having completed its work, attention now shifts to the Senate, where lawmakers will decide whether President Trump’s signature election integrity proposal survives intact, is significantly rewritten or is removed from the legislation altogether, Fox News reported.
The outcome could determine whether one of the administration’s top legislative priorities reaches the president’s desk before the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
