House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders are considering adding the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” (SAVE) Act to a stop-gap spending package for Fiscal Year 2025, according to a report from Punchbowl News.
The GOP leadership is looking to attach the SAVE Act to the upcoming spending bill. If passed, the SAVE Act would require individuals to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections nationwide.
The proposed spending bill would extend government funding until March 2025. However, it may face significant challenges in the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority.
The House Freedom Caucus supports the idea of attaching the SAVE Act to the spending package. The proposed extension of the continuing resolution to early 2025 is designed to avoid a lame-duck omnibus package if Donald Trump is elected president. This strategy could put Senate Democrats in a difficult position if they wish to fund the government through the upcoming election period.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has also expressed support for the proposal. Speaking on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” Lee stated, “With the SAVE Act, we’re saying we should require nothing less to vote in federal elections than what you have to establish when you start a new job.”
He added, “When you attach that to a spending bill, that’s the best way to ensure that the over 10 million illegal immigrants who have entered the country in the last three and a half years, along with the estimated 30 million noncitizens in the U.S., aren’t voting in this November’s election.”
Democrats argue that proof of citizenship is unnecessary since it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote. For example, Texas recently removed around 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls as part of a purge of about one million ineligible voters.