Politics

Key GOP Holdout Signals She Will No Longer Freeze House Floor Over SAVE ACT Demands

Anna Paulina Luna/Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna stated Monday she would support a rule to open the House floor by complying with a plan to pass the Safeguard America Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

Luna and other holdouts voted against a June 30 procedural vote to debate attaching the SAVE America Act to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) through a process called “MIRVing,” where lawmakers attach unrelated bills into a single massive package. Luna said she would accept Speaker Mike Johnson’s “MIRVing” plan as long as the SAVE America Act is attached to every appropriations bill.

“We will try the MIRV process on the condition that Speaker Johnson attaches the SAVE America Act to all the appropriation bills and all must-pass bills here in the House and ensures it is sent to the Senate as one bill,” Luna said on X. “If John Thune strips it out in the Senate that will be on him and the entire country should be watching what he does. If he wants to actively work against Voter I.D. & the SAVE America Act he must face the consequences of his actions. His State party should censure him and/or he should be primaried if he wants to betray his constituents in this manner. That is the nature of politics.”

If Luna and other holdouts vote for the rule Tuesday, the chamber will be able to advance and pass legislation before the August recess. Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy said there was a 50-50 chance of the holdouts cutting a deal to reopen the House floor, according to Politico.

Luna argued Senate Majority Leader John Thune may deliberately try to strip the SAVE America Act from his own version of the NDAA. Thune repeatedly expressed his support for the SAVE America Act, but argued the upper chamber lacked the necessary votes to pass it.

“If SAVE America is stripped out in the Senate, the blame will fall solely on John Thune. There’s a little thing in the Senate known as the “amendment tree.” It determines the maximum number of amendments that can be offered to any given bill. If Leader Thune deliberately “fills the tree,” he can block individual Senators from offering additional amendments—such as one to keep SAVE America attached if it is stripped out … He is actively working against an issue that 80% of Americans support. Shame on him.”

Luna and 12 other Republicans voted against a procedural rule to debate attaching the SAVE America Act to the NDAA, causing the House to enter an early recess because they could not advance pieces of legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise voted against it as a procedural move to offer a motion to reconsider the vote, which could allow the vote to be taken up again.

Luna demanded that the SAVE America Act be directly added into the text of the NDAA, arguing that MIRVing would allow the Senate to easily remove the SAVE America Act from the package. Johnson argued the Senate could strip the SAVE America Act out of the bill if it were added to the text.

Senate Republicans planned to attach the SAVE America Act to all must-pass bills, including the National Security, Department of State and Related Programs Appropriations Act for the 2027 fiscal year, which advanced out of the Rules Committee Monday. Rules Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx argued attaching the SAVE America Act was a way to “move forward” on key pieces of legislation, while Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern called the Republicans’ move “show business.”

The Rules Committee advanced the appropriations bill and the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, which would scrap standard time in favor of daylight saving time.