WASHINGTON — Last night, Speaker Johnson joined Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy on Fox News to discuss Democrats’ opposition to commonsense election security measures like voter ID and citizenship verification. Speaker Johnson also addressed the Democrats’ ongoing blockade of FISA Section 702 and Republican priorities for the balance of the 119th Congress.
“All that bill does is it requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID when you show up to do so,” Speaker Johnson said. “That’s common sense. That’s a 90/10 issue in public opinion polling.”
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here.
| On Republican priorities for the remainder of the 119th Congress: We’re working overtime to get all that checklist done. We have the surface transportation bill that’s still on the table, the National Defense Authorization Act, we’re working through the appropriations process before the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30, as you know. So, a lot on the table. But we are looking at another reconciliation package, and it is a sad statement about where we are in politics in America right now. We’ve done two reconciliation bills already and your viewers know because they’re savvy; this is the only exception to having to get 60 votes in the Senate on a major piece of legislation. So, reconciliation allows 51 votes only to pass in the Senate if you’re reconciling a budget. That’s what we squeezed into the Big Beautiful Bill, into the Working Families Tax Cut. We just got Reconciliation 2.0 done to get the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. Democrats didn’t want to have any part of any of those things, and I’m afraid they don’t want to be a part of, of course, ensuring the security of our elections, helping further with national defense, and bringing down the cost of living, which is what we’re going to put into this third package. On Democrats refusing commonsense election security measures: Democrats are against anything with regard to commonsense election security. All that bill does, the current version, is it requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID when you show up to do so. That’s common sense; that’s a 90/10 issue in public opinion polling, and yet no Democrat will go along with it. On Democrats’ FISA blockade jeopardizing national security: FISA will require 60 votes and I’m certainly hopeful that the Democrats will put their shenanigans aside and finally approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As you know, Trey, that’s the probably the most important national security tool that we have with regard to intelligence because two-thirds of the President’s daily national security briefing comes from the intel that we gather through Section 702. It’s not a game. It endangers the homeland. They’ve got to get it done. The President has named the new permanent Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, who is eminently qualified, as everybody agrees. So, let’s hope they put the politics aside on Monday and get this done and get FISA reauthorized. |