D.C. Memo: House backs GOP bills to fund Iran war, create voter ID laws, but Senate says ‘wait a minute’

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House scrambled to finish its business before it adjourned this week for a long August recess that allows lawmakers to campaign for reelection.

In a rush of votes, Republicans made use of their slim majority to steamroll Democrats and pass a number of bills, including one that contained the SAVE America Act. That’s legislation that would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — such as a passport or birth certificate — to register to vote and government-issued photo identification to cast a ballot.

The SAVE America Act was attached to a bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks while allowing lawmakers to keep the shares of stocks they already own.

Nearly all Democrats, including all four in Minnesota’s delegation to the House, voted against the legislation. All four Republicans from the state voted for it.

Most Democrats said they opposed the stock legislation because the SAVE America Act was married to it. Some also said the legislation would not do enough to stop insider trading by lawmakers.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4^th District, cited both reasons for her opposition to the bill.

“Republicans in Congress think we won’t see through their attempts to mislead Americans,” McCollum said in a post on X. “Their falsely-named Stop Insider Trading Act doesn’t stop any insider trading. Even worse, it includes the SAVE America Act, which would make it harder for you to vote.”

Although President Donald Trump has made the SAVE America Act a legislative priority, it’s unclear whether the Senate, in session for about two more weeks, will take up the stock bill or most of the other bills the House rushed to approve this week.

Pressuring the Senate to act on the voter ID bill, Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8^th District, cited the disclosure this week that a software glitch in a voter registration system in New Jersey had improperly enrolled about 6,000 individuals and that about 400 of those registered in error cast a vote.

“I don’t want to hear another Democrat politician tell us that non-citizens aren’t voting in our elections,” Stauber said in a post on X. “They have lied for years about this, and what happened in New Jersey is further proof. It’s time for the Senate to PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

Another bill in limbo in the Senate is a House GOP budget blueprint that would provide up to $95 billion in funding for the Iran war and the nation’s intelligence agencies and provide money to implement the SAVE America Act.

The legislation, approved on a 215-213 vote with absolutely no Democratic support, would also provide the nation’s farmers with nearly $12 billion in emergency aid to counter the effects of low commodity prices, lost markets to Trump-imposed tariffs, and increases in prices for diesel and fertilizer because of Iran’s blockage of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement, Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, called the budget resolution “disastrous” and a “threat to our Democracy.”

“At a time when folks across this country are reeling from the impacts of President Trump’s short-sighted economic policies and his illegal war in Iran, the last thing we should be doing is allocating more money to an administration that clearly prioritizes the president’s own political and foreign policy objectives over the livelihoods of the American people,” Craig said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced skeptical senators from both parties as he testified this week before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the need for $67 billion to cover the costs of the Iran War. And a handful of GOP senators have voted in recent months to rein in Trump’s war-making authority in Iran. So, approval of the budget resolution is not certain.

Another House bill that may find itself in limbo in the Senate is a continuing resolution, or CR, the House approved this week to avoid a government shutdown on Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.

With Congress unable to win final approval for all 12 appropriations bills that would fund the federal government, the threat of a shutdown before November’s midterm elections prompted House GOP leaders to press for approval of the short-term funding bill.

The House approved the bill. But most Democrats – including all of those in Minnesota’s congressional delegation – opposed it.

Democratic leaders said they did not want a shutdown but could not support the bill because it failed to block funds for Trump’s mass deportation campaign and lacks guardrails on how the White House can spend other money.

“This continuing resolution is a premature and desperate attempt by Republicans to abdicate their responsibility to govern while there are still several months left to negotiate a bipartisan agreement,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other top House Democrats wrote to Democratic lawmakers. “We will be voting no.”

Minnesota’s Republicans, meanwhile, joined their GOP colleagues in supporting the short-term bill.

“By continuing federal funding through December 4th, this legislation prevents another costly shutdown, ensures constituents can continue to rely on essential government services, and gives Congress time to finalize full-year appropriations bills,” Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1^st District, said in a statement.

In any case, it appears lawmakers of both parties will hit the campaign trail this year without much to run on.

Study: hunger on the rise 

A little over a year ago, Congress approved a “big, beautiful bill” that established President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities.

The legislation’s cuts to the food stamp program resulted in a loss of food aid for 1.5 million children from July of last year until March, according to an analysis released this week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the official  name for the food stamp program, helps low-income people buy groceries.

The “big, beautiful bill” changed SNAP’s work requirement, which allowed three months of benefits in a three-year period unless recipients met strict work requirements or qualified for an exemption. Historically, the restriction has never been applied to parents or caregivers of children nor adults over age 49.

But the new qualification for SNAP applies the work requirements to all individuals over the age of 65 and to parents of children who are older than 13.

The center determined that SNAP participation nationwide fell by more than 4.5 million, or nearly 11%.

It dropped less in Minnesota, where participation in the program dropped by 3.52%, or about 16,000.

In fact, the center’s study showed that in “blue” states governed by Democrats, SNAP participation dropped far less than in “red” states run by Republicans, with Arizona showing the greatest reduction, about 55%.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also determined that in the 19 states with publicly available data or that have shared unpublished data, the restrictions on SNAP have left more than 1 million children without food aid.

The center also says that based on what it called “a conservative estimate,” the number of children receiving SNAP has dropped by more than 1.5 million since July 2025.

In other news:

▪️Our new drinking water reporter, Claire Carlson, wrote that as wildfire smoke begins to lift from northern Minnesota, scientists and water managers are keeping a close eye on how smoke and falling ash could affect nearby drinking water sources.  
▪️Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell reported that an idea pitched by Minneapolis police – to use drones as first responders to a crime scene – crashed and burned as the City Council rejected the plan.
▪️As the number of uninsured Americans grows, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and other progressive Democrats have embraced “Medicare for All,” but party moderates not so much.
▪️Maddie Robbinson wrote about how a renovated building in downtown Minneapolis is giving children with special needs and their parents new hope.

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond.

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