WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to approve the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election bill that President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to pass.
The vote was 218-213, with Republicans voting unanimously in favor and all but one Democrat voting against. The Democrat who voted yes was Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
The 32-page legislation would require states to obtain documentary proof of citizenship “in person,” such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate, from someone in order to register them to vote in federal elections.
The bill, which was revised from an earlier version to include new demands from Trump, also requires voters to show a photo ID to vote in person. And it enforces new rules for mail-in ballots, requiring voters to submit a copy of an eligible ID when requesting and casting an absentee ballot.
“It’s just common sense. Americans need ID to drive, to open a bank account, to buy cold medicine, to apply for government assistance,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. “Why should voting be any different?”
Democrats say the legislation is designed to disenfranchise Americans, noting that noncitizen voting is already illegal and rare. Current law requires voters to attest to their citizenship under oath, with criminal penalties for violators.
“This is a desperate effort by Republicans to distract,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N., told reporters. “The so-called SAVE Act is not about voter identification, it’s about voter suppression. And they have no credibility on this issue.”
Jeffries and other Democrats note that the GOP bill comes after Trump said he wants to “nationalize” the election and “take the vote in at least — in many, 15 places.” This runs afoul of the Constitution, which gives the states authority over the “times, places, and manner of holding elections” for federal offices. Democrats also note that the FBI has seized ballots and voter files in Fulton County, Georgia, as Trump continues to make false claims that he won the 2020 election.
Republicans point out that requiring some form of voter ID is popular. A Pew Research Center poll last August found that 83 percent of US adults agree that “all voters should be required to show a government-issued photo ID to vote.” That includes 71 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of black voters, who some Democrats and liberal supporters argue would be disenfranchised.
The bill — sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah — now heads to the Senate, where it faces a daunting path. Republicans control 53 seats, and some of them are skeptical or outright opposed to the legislation.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, spoke out against it this week, reminding her GOP colleagues that they claimed to be against federal election mandates for states as early as 2021.
“When Democrats tried to advance sweeping election reform legislation in 2021, Republicans were unanimous in their opposition because it would have federalized elections, something we’ve long opposed,” she said. “Now, I see proposals like the SAVE Act and MEGA that would effectively do just that. Again, I do not support these efforts.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, finds the revised version of the bill problematic, according to her office.
“Senator Collins supports the law and constitutional interpretation that only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. She also supports voter ID. That’s why she supported the original SAVE Act,” a Collins spokesperson told NBC News. “There were problems with the SAVE America Act because it was much broader than these original principles, and we hope those problems are addressed by the bill’s authors and the House.”
And Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former GOP leader who led the charge against Democrats’ failed voting rights package in 2021 and 2022, has long insisted he believes elections should be run by states without federal interference or mandates.
Even if it wins a Senate majority, the bill lacks the 60-vote path to break a filibuster because Democrats vehemently oppose it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the proposal “would impose Jim Crow laws on the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., said Tuesday that Republicans are having a “close” discussion on the measure, offering their support for it and promising to bring it to a vote.
“How we get to that vote remains to be seen,” Thune said, while clarifying that Senate Republicans are staunchly opposed to eliminating the 60-vote threshold, despite the president’s calls to abolish it. “I’m nowhere near the votes — not even close — to kill the filibuster.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com