Despite a self-inflicted delay last week, House Republicans on Thursday passed legislation aimed at stopping noncitizens from voting in federal elections, a priority pursued by President Donald Trump.
Known as the SAVE Act, it would require people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Democrats have railed against the bill, particularly its limits on acceptable forms of identification, which they say would make it difficult for married women who have changed their last names to register. The real goal, some Democrats say, is to disenfranchise Americans.
“When they do that, they win elections,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat and member of the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections. “So this is about saving Republican seats and elected officers, not about … election integrity.”
Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the lead sponsor of the bill, called it a necessary step.
“The American people have spoken very clearly that they believe only American citizens should vote in American elections. There’s nothing controversial about that,” Roy said from the House floor Thursday ahead of the vote.
The measure passed, 220-208, with Republicans in favor joined by four Democrats: Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii, Jared Golden of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.
The proposal now heads to the Senate, where the GOP holds a narrow majority. A version introduced in that chamber by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has gained 20 co-sponsors, all Republicans, and it’s not clear whether any Democrats would lend their support.
Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer vowed in a statement earlier this month that Senate Democrats would block it.
“Congressional Republicans are pushing a proposal that would coerce states into instituting policies that would effectively prevent millions of American citizens from voting, stymie automatic voter registration and derail in-person voter registration drives. It is an outrage,” the New York Democrat wrote.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and there is scant evidence it happens with any regularity, even according to conservative groups. But it has preoccupied many in the GOP in the wake of the 2020 election, when Trump lost to Joe Biden but made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud that have resounded through the ranks of congressional Republicans.
House Republicans took up the bill weeks after Trump issued a sweeping executive order imposing stringent voter identification standards nationwide. The order is the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by Democratic officials and other groups across the country.
“American citizens — and only American citizens — should decide American elections,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement last week encouraging support for the legislation. “House Republicans are determined to codify this commonsense idea with the SAVE Act.”
The measure instructs states to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls, and it would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to require proof of citizenship. While a passport is on the list of acceptable documents, critics say the cost and inconvenience of obtaining one puts that out of reach for millions of Americans. A photo ID paired with a birth certificate would suffice, according to the bill, but that could create problems for married women if their names no longer match. Criminal penalties would apply for election officials who register people without the right proof, which some fear could lead to overcaution. But supporters say states would work out those issues, and dismiss other concerns, like rural applicants facing long drives to produce the documents in person.
If the SAVE Act becomes law, each state would create its own process for verifying citizenship during voter registration, after seeing guidance from the Election Assistance Commission.
“We’re looking at a federal election that’s 18 months away, so if enacted immediately … in the interim we know that states would be creating a process to address this issue,” House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told the House Rules Committee earlier this month, when asked about potential delays for women who had taken their spouse’s last name.
“The general election [is] in 2026, we have special elections going on right now,” responded House Administration ranking member Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y. “And by the way, this isn’t about voting. This is about registering. So you’d have to wait months to figure out what your state does.”
The SAVE Act was first introduced last Congress and passed the House before fizzling in the Democrat-controlled Senate. This Congress it was one of a dozen priority bills named in the overall House Rules package, meaning it could be called to the floor for a vote without going through the Rules Committee.
Nevertheless, GOP leaders opted to divert it through the committee anyway amid an unrelated skirmish. Ratcheting up the pressure on a handful of Republicans who wanted to allow proxy voting for new parents in the House, leaders folded language to kill that effort into a rule teeing up the SAVE Act and other conservative priorities.
The procedural tactic initially backfired for Johnson and the GOP. Nine Republicans joined all Democrats to vote down the rule on the House floor, scuttling the anti-proxy voting language along with consideration of the conservative bills.
But that procedural drama was in the rearview mirror by Thursday, as Republicans celebrated passage of the election measure, on the same day they successfully pushed through a budget resolution meant to unlock the next steps toward other priorities of Trump’s.
Johnson took a victory lap after the votes.
“I told you not to doubt us. The media always does, the Democrats always do, but we get the job done,” he said, referring to the budget resolution and other Republican wins this week, including the SAVE Act.
“Only U.S. citizens should vote and decide U.S. elections,” Johnson continued. “It’s already in federal law, but there’s no mechanism currently to ensure that that law is always followed. This measure, the SAVE Act, will help make sure that is true.”
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