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By Sam Stevenson
Associate News Editor
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The Republican‑controlled House has narrowly passed the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election bill backed by President Donald Trump, sending the measure to the Senate, where it faces serious opposition.
The bill passed Wednesday by a 218-213 vote, with Republicans unanimously in favor and all but one Democrat voting against it.
Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas was the sole Democrat to support the legislation.
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Why It Matters
The 32‑page measure would significantly reshape federal election rules nationwide by requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
What To Know
Under the bill, voters would have to present such proof in person, using documents such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate.
The legislation also mandates photo identification for in‑person voting and tightens rules for mail‑in ballots, requiring voters to submit a copy of an approved ID, both when requesting and returning an absentee ballot.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana defended the bill as a common-sense safeguard, arguing that voting should be treated no differently than other activities that require identification.
“Americans need an ID to drive, to open a bank account, to buy cold medicine, to file government assistance,” Johnson said. “So why would voting be any different than that?”
Democrats criticized the legislation, warning it could disenfranchise eligible voters and noting that voting by noncitizens is already illegal and rare.
Current federal law requires voters to attest to their citizenship under penalty of criminal prosecution.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the bill was designed to suppress turnout rather than protect election integrity.
“This is a desperate effort by Republicans to distract. The so‑called SAVE Act is not about voter identification, it is about voter suppression,” Jeffries said, adding that Republicans “have zero credibility on this issue."
Democrats have also raised constitutional concerns, pointing to Trump’s recent comments about “nationalizing” elections—a move they argue would conflict with the Constitution’s delegation of election administration to the states.
They further note ongoing investigations tied to Trump’s continued voter fraud claims about the 2020 election.
Republicans counter that voter ID requirements are broadly popular.
A Pew Research Center survey published last year found that 83 percent of U.S. adults support requiring government‑issued photo identification to vote, including majorities of Democrats and Black voters.
For that research, which had a plus or minus 1.8 percentage point margin of error, Pew surveyed 3,554 adults from August 4 to 10, 2025.
What People Are Saying
Raising concerns with the bill, a spokesperson for Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine told NBC: “Senator Collins supports the law and constitutional interpretation that only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. She also supports voter ID. So she supported the original SAVE Act.
“There were problems with the SAVE America Act because it went much broader than these original principles and we hope those issues are being addressed by the bill’s authors and the House.”
Gideon Cohn-Postar, senior adviser for election infrastructure at the Institute for Responsive Government, told The Guardian: “The big thing for these bills is that they want to use them to create the impression that there is something wrong in some states.
“You can describe them in a really general way, and they sound reasonable. ‘Oh, proof of citizenship. Well, of course everyone should prove citizenship.’ Well, actually, it is incredibly difficult to do, and people do attest to their citizenship on the penalty of perjury. That’s a very high standard, actually.”
Rebekah Caruthers, president and CEO of Fair Elections Center, said: “We’ve got to look at this in its totality. The whole point of this is to restrict who gets to vote in this country.”
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social last week: "America’s Elections are Rigged, Stolen, and a Laughingstock all over the World. We are either going to fix them, or we won’t have a Country any longer."
What Happens Next
The bill, sponsored by Representative Chip Roy of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah, now heads to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.
While Republicans hold a narrow majority, several GOP senators have expressed reservations about imposing federal election mandates on states, and the legislation lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has already declared the bill “dead on arrival,” while Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said Republicans are holding internal discussions about how—or whether—to move it forward, even as they rule out changing Senate filibuster rules.
Update 02/12/26, 02.37 a.m. ET. This article was updated with more information.
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