NEW: Mike Johnson, House GOP consider attaching SAVE Act to funding bill: report

According to the outlet, Johnson and the GOP leadership are looking to attach the SAVE Act to the spending bill. If passed, the SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote nationally in federal elections.

The spending bill would extend government spending until March 2025. However, the bill could face an uphill battle if it goes to the Seante, where the Democrats have the majority.

The idea of attaching the SAVE Act to the spending package is backed by the House Freedom Caucus. The potential move of extending a continuing resolution to only early 2025, as to avoid the lame duck omnibus package if Trump is elected into office, could put Democrats in the Senate in a tough spot if they wish to fund the government through the time of the election.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has also backed the proposal, backing up the idea recently. The Utah Senator appeared on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” and said, “So with the SAVE Act, what we’re saying is we should require nothing less to vote in federal elections than you have to establish when you start a new job.”

“When you attach that to a spending bill, and that’s the best way to move that through, to make sure that the 10 million plus illegal immigrants who have come in in the last 3 and a half years, and the estimated roughly 30 million noncitizens total in the United States aren’t voting in this November’s election,” he added.

Democrats have argued that proof of citizenship is not needed because the practice of voting as a noncitizen is already illegal in the country. Texas last week removed around 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls as the state purged the rolls of around one million ineligible voters.