Legislative Calls to Action -- April 1, 2026

Indiana Voter Turnout

(from MADVoters)

Indiana's voter registration deadline for the May 5 primaries is Monday, April 6.

Your vote matters; primaries are when we determine which candidates will face off on the ballot in November. Only about 1 in 7 eligible Hoosier voters participates in midterm primaries. That's just 14% of the electorate, dramatically lower than the national average. In fact, it's ranked at the bottom. It gets even worse in our most populous counties: 11% in Marion County, 13% in Lake County, and a jaw-dropping 7% in St. Joseph County. 

The more Hoosiers that turn out to vote, the stronger our democracy. This year, candidates stepped up in greater numbers than they have in decades, filling nearly every Statehouse race. They're counting on you to show up at the polls on May 5 and on November 3.

DHS and ICE Funding

House lawmakers on Friday passed a Republican bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its entirety for eight weeks, after GOP leaders rejected a Senate-passed bill that would exclude money for immigration enforcement.  The partisan package was a nod to conservative immigration hawks, who hailed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for pushing it through. But it has no chance of passing the Senate and ensures that the weeks-long DHS shutdown will become the longest in history. The tally was 213-203, with three centrist Democrats joining every voting Republican in supporting the bill: Reps. Don Davis (D-N.C.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who had previously voted in favor of DHS funding bills, was a “no.”

Democrats had demanded the carveout after federal officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier in the year. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) ushered the bill to the floor in the early hours of Friday. It passed by unanimous consent. Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, however, immediately bashed the deal, demanding full funding for ICE and Border Patrol while pushing for a new voter ID requirement championed by President Trump.  “The only thing we’re going to support is adding that funding into the bill, adding voter ID, sending it back to the Senate, make them come back in and do their work. The bottom line is, this deal is bad for America,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told reporters. Congress is now in recess for two weeks. (The Hill)

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

House GOP leaders are punting a “clean” FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reauthorization vote until mid-April because they don’t have the votes to pass it. This week, Senators Ron Wyden and Mike Lee, along with Representatives Warren Davidson and Zoe Lofgren, introduced the updated Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA) to protect Americans’ rights and tamp down on warrantless government surveillance. The bicameral, bipartisan bill is part of broader efforts to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is up for reauthorization this year. 

The Government Surveillance Reform Act includes critical protections for our privacy and our data in an increasingly vulnerable digital world. As technology advances, so too must our laws to ensure that we secure the values enshrined in our Constitution,” said Jeramie D. Scott, EPIC Senior Counsel and Director of the Surveillance Oversight Program. (Epic.org)

Update (no update) on The Save Act

Punchbowl News reported that Senate Majority Leader Thune and Democratic leadership came to an agreement yesterday to fund everything under DHS except for ICE. It was a go. Everyone was happy. Thune took it to Trump; he killed it, saying now that there can be no deal with Democrats on TSA funding unless they also consent to passing the SAVE America Act. Can you imagine the private gnashing of teeth amongst Republicans? Especially now that that news is out and every content creator on the left is making sure Americans understand that this TSA nightmare scenario is now ENTIRELY on Trump?

President Trump told Republican lawmakers on Monday to not “worry about Easter” in order to stay in Washington to vote on a bill that ties Department of Homeland Security funding with voter identification requirements in the SAVE Act. 

Trump said that he’s “requesting that the Republican Senators do that immediately” and joked that lawmakers shouldn’t go home for what is slated to be a two-week recess starting at the end of this week.

“You don’t have to take a fast vote, don’t worry about Easter, going home — in fact make this one for Jesus,” he said while hosting a roundtable in Memphis.

The president previously encouraged tying the two together in a TruthSocial post late Sunday, saying he doesn’t think any deal should be made “with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.’”

“It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people – UNLESS it includes their approval of Voter I.D. (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children,” he wrote.

The DHS funding shutdown has stretched well past a month and is starting to impact airports with long lines. Lawmakers have been working to come to an agreement or at least get some functions of DHS funded like the TSA but Trump has introduced a new wrinkle by forcing one big bill that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said would be difficult to pass. (The Hill)