Chip Roy and 24 other House Republicans said they will vote against any legislation until the U.S. Senate passes the Save America Act, turning the House floor into a protest over voting rules. Roy said on X Tuesday that his “no” votes would start Tuesday, and he immediately put that threat into action by saying he would oppose bipartisan housing legislation that passed the Senate Monday.
The move gives fresh force to a House Gop appropriations bill delay that is no longer about one bill, but about leverage. Roy called the housing measure “a bad bill” and “more Senate failure theater on SAVE,” while also saying he wants the Senate to move legislation banning congressional stock trading and to fund Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Three other Republicans — Keith Self, Michael Cloud and Brandon Gill — said they would join him in opposing all rules and legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE Act.
The Save America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and it has become a litmus test for Republicans under pressure from Donald Trump to get it through before the November midterm elections. Supporters inside the party see the bill as a core election issue and one that fits with the MAGA coalition, while Democrats and voting rights groups say it is too strict and could keep millions of voters from registering if they do not have a passport or ready access to a birth certificate.
That divide is why the clash now reaches beyond election talk and into the daily business of Congress. A bipartisan housing bill already cleared the Senate on Monday, but Roy chose it as the first public target of the protest, showing that the standoff is not aimed only at a future fight over the SAVE Act itself. The message to the Senate is simple: pass the voting bill first, or House legislation keeps running into the same wall.
Whether the Senate does that is the next test, and it is the one that decides how long House Republicans keep their blockade in place. A Politico poll last month found 52% of Americans supported a proof of citizenship requirement to vote, while 30% had no opinion and 18% opposed it, a split that helps explain why the fight is being pressed now even as it drags unrelated bills into the middle of it.
