House GOP weds SAVE Act to key funding bill, unshouldering burden of success onto Thune and company

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced late last month that he would bundle the SAVE America Act with the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act so that Senate Republicans are presented with the choice of both bolstering the integrity of American elections and funding national defense — or neither.

“We’re going to pass a MIRV, or what’s better known as a ‘merge onto the rule,'” said Johnson, adopting the military acronym for multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle, a ballistic missile that carries multiple warheads. “So what that means is, when Republicans vote for the rule, they’ll be voting not just for the NDAA and everything else in there, but they’ll be voting to merge onto that the SAVE America Act we passed back in February.”

‘WHATEVER IT