US President Donald Trump invoked Jesus Christ on Monday to urge Republicans in Congress to work through the upcoming Easter holidays in an attempt to pass an election bill strongly opposed by Democrats, Reuters reports.
Trump said the voter ID bill should be included in any funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been partially shut down since Feb. 13 after Democrats called for reforms to immigration enforcement.
“I'm asking Republican senators to do this right now. You don't have to give a quick vote. Don't worry about Easter, about homecoming. In fact, do it for Jesus,” Trump said at an event in Memphis, Tennessee.
Congressmen are set to go on a two-week Easter break starting later this week.
However, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Congressman John Thune, rejected the idea of combining the Department of Homeland Security funding with the voter identification initiative in the same bill.
An “unrealistic” request, says the leader of the Republican senators
“I think you all know this is not realistic,” Thune told reporters, referring to the existence of enough opposition in the Senate to block the bill.
Instead, Thune said he hoped there would be a path to passage of the DHS funding measure by the end of the week.
The lack of funding for DHS means tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees went without pay for five weeks, prompting some airport security workers to take sick leave or walk off the job altogether.
The voting bill would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to vote.
The bill currently lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic opposition in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats.
Trump is promoting the change in the electoral law in the context in which the US will hold elections in November in the middle of the term of the current Congress, the so-called “midterms”, in which the Democrats could regain control of the Senate.
A major defeat for the Republican Party would leave President Trump without the majority he needs in the legislature to pass several of his initiatives.
