Monday Morning Politics: The SAVE Act And More

**Brigid Bergen** (0:10)
This is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian today.
It's the end of June, so it's another day where we're expecting the Supreme Court to issue opinions. So we've got our eyes on what's coming out today, and we will bring you the news when we have it. There are cases outstanding on birthright citizenship, transgender athletes, mail-in ballots, and other major issues. Emily Bazelon from Yale Law School is standing by and will be our guest later this morning, if today is the day for one of those blockbuster opinions. Plus, WNYC and Gothamist housing reporter David Brand will be back to talk to us about the problem of rent-stabilized apartments sitting empty here in the city, more than 57,000, according to a recent count. The mayor got his rent freeze, but what's up with all these empty apartments?
But first, we're kicking things off with some Monday Morning Politics. The House is supposed to get back to work in Washington, DC today. It comes after last week's primary wins for Mayor Mamdani and the DSA-aligned Democratic congressional candidates who are set to remake the Empire State's congressional delegation. They're also likely to bring challenges to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who's poised to become the first Black Speaker of the House of Representatives should Democrats take majority control in November. But for now, lawmakers are stuck in the same old, same old partisan gridlock, with Republican infighting creating ongoing headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson. We'll get an update on the fight over a voter ID law backed by President Trump that's standing in the way of an unusually bipartisan measure, plus a preview of the Democrats' playbook for 2029
Nicholas Wu is a congressional reporter at Semafor who covers all these topics and more. He joins me now. Nick, welcome back to WNYC. Thanks for being with us this morning.

**Nicholas Wu** (2:07)
Good morning and thanks so much for having me.

**Brigid Bergen** (2:09)
So the House is supposed to be in session through Thursday before that July 4th recess. But let's start where things ended last week. There was a big bipartisan housing bill that was headed for President Trump's desk but didn't quite make it. And that's because President Trump's singular focus on another piece of legislation. So Nick, tell us first about that bipartisan housing bill and what it was set to do.

**Nicholas Wu** (2:36)
So this was a piece of legislation that had been in the works for months and months and was a very rare bipartisan compromise on Capitol Hill for an issue that's on the minds of a lot of people, the cost of housing. And so this is the kind of legislation where you have a rare convergence between folks like Elizabeth Warren and conservative Republicans because among other provisions, this bill would basically place curbs on the buying of single-family houses by institutional investors as one way of trying to tackle the price of housing.
But of course, this was something that ran afoul of President Trump when he decided to make a protest over the progress on the SAVE Act, the elections legislation that he's been pushing for months.

**Brigid Bergen** (3:22)
Nick, I mean, I feel like I have been talking to folks like you and other reporters about the SAVE Act for at least a year, right?
Let's talk for those of you who have not been following as closely as I know you have been. What would the SAVE Act do and why has this become President Trump's priority?

**Nicholas Wu** (3:42)
The SAVE Act has become a fixation of President Trump's.
Basically, ever since the start of his presidency, he saw this as something as a way to, you right, the wrongs of the 2020 election, which he still believes was stolen from him on the basis of mail-in voting and voter ID. So what the SAVE Act would do is basically address a lot of those issues. It would require much stricter voter ID. It would clamp down on mail-in voting. This is something that a lot of advocates are saying would be hugely disruptive to an election, not even five months away. For that matter, it just doesn't have the votes in the Senate. There's not 60 votes to clear a filibuster there, and it's not clear there's even majority Republican support for that.

**Brigid Bergen** (4:32)
Listeners, we want to hear from you. We're going to be talking a lot in this segment about what the Congress is trying to do this week and ahead of the November elections. But we want to know what would you like to see on the congressional agenda ahead of the November elections? Besides the housing bill, are there other bipartisan agenda items you'd like to see the House take up? And how do you think last week's primary elections stand to reshape the congressional debate ahead of the midterms? Call in with your Monday morning analysis or any other questions you have for my guest, Semafor congressional reporter Nicholas Wu. The number is 212-433-WNYC.