Last week, nearly all the House Democrats, along with 14 Republicans, voted against a stopgap bill that would have funded the government for another six months and included the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would prevent noncitizens from voting in this coming election by requiring them to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Consequently, as former editor for The Federalist Chris Bedford recently noted, Congress (including several of its GOP members) has “killed the House Republicans’ momentum and leverage” in failing to pass this bill in the House.

Knowing this, it should surprise no one that Republicans just voted for the same bill without the SAVE Act this week, upending any hope of passing the SAVE Act before the election or in the foreseeable future. Worse still, according to Bedford, this likely means they will revisit this spending issue in December and probably cave again to demands to pass an omnibus that would effectively prevent an incoming Trump administration from cutting programs and ending American involvement in foreign conflicts.

This all seems pretty bad, so who were the 14 Republicans who voted against the original bill that included the SAVE Act? Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.; Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn; Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz.; Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas; Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.; Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.; Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.; Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla.; and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas.

Evidently, these lawmakers voted against the bill because they wanted to combat excessive spending. As Mace posted on X, “As a cosponsor of the SAVE Act, I’ve supported the SAVE Act since day 1. But I’ve never voted for a CR. When I said I wanted to cut spending, I meant it.”

Considering the awful timing and tiny majority that Republicans currently enjoy in the House, Mace should know that her reasoning is nonsense. In fact, her unusual desire to cut spending at this moment seems like a convenient pretext for not wanting to pass the SAVE Act.

But why would that be? Maybe she and the other dissenting Republicans believed that it was more important that her constituents (or donors) see her as a hardliner on spending than on immigration. Or they could have been thinking that it was still possible to pass the SAVE Act while securing more concessions from Democrats. Or, as Bedford suggests in another column on this bill, they may have been wanting additional funding for some special interest (i.e., defense spending).

In any case, 10 of these Republicans also voted against a continuing resolution without the SAVE Act (two voted for it and two did not vote). But the bottom line is that they could have voted for a resolution that included the measure.

Of course, a competent party leader would have called the bluff by correcting this flawed thinking and making a deal if necessary, He would have made the obvious point that a shutdown would certainly be blamed on Republicans if they failed to pass a continuing resolution. More importantly, he would have stressed that this was their best chance to keep countless illegal ballots out of this year’s election.

Democrats may pretend that the SAVE Act is unnecessary since it’s already illegal for non-Americans to vote, but this means nothing since these laws aren’t always enforced. Besides, why would Democrats vote in lockstep against the SAVE Act if it supposedly doesn’t make a difference to current policy — and vote the opposite way when the SAVE Act is removed?

That said, competent legislators should know better than to jeopardize their party’s future in a make-or-break election in order to score useless political points. Weakness is not a luxury that the GOP can afford right now. Unlike the Democrats, who can easily come together to vote for bad policy that nonetheless makes them richer and more powerful, every Republican needs to have the fortitude, prudence, and selflessness to forgo these kickbacks and serve the country. They can’t be corrupt phonies needing to be constantly coaxed and cajoled to do the right thing on every vote.

With any hope, Mike Johnson and his colleagues’ shameless incompetence in the effort to pass the SAVE Act won’t ultimately doom Republicans in this coming election. And perhaps a future legislature with a Republican majority will finally pass the SAVE Act into law, securing elections from the infusion of ballots from noncitizens. But for now, this will go down as yet another missed opportunity for the GOP and another reason the party desperately needs new leadership.