Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) listens during a House Rules Committee meeting on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the U.S. Capitol on May 21, 2025.
Kevin Dietch | Getty Images
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday afternoon on an election bill backed by President Donald Trump that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID at the ballot box.
The SAVE America Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), is the focus of a pressure campaign by the White House, hardline Republicans in Congress, and online influencers like Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, Democrats and voting rights groups say the bill would disenfranchise millions of Americans, make it harder to register to vote and put more power in the hands of President Trump and the federal government ahead of what is expected to be a difficult midterm election for Republicans.
“It is the president’s desire that elections be in the hands of the president and his administration,” said Rep. Joe Morrell (D.N.Y.), referring to President Trump’s recent comments about nationalizing American elections.
“He wants to do this because the Republicans know that if the midterm elections go ahead as expected, they will lose their majority in the House and probably lose their majority in the Senate,” Morrell, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees federal elections, told reporters on Tuesday.
Under the U.S. Constitution, states are allowed to control most aspects of elections.
A revised version of the SAVE America Act passed the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. The House is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the bill early Wednesday afternoon, followed by a vote on the base bill later in the day.
If the bill passes the House, it is expected to be an uphill climb in the Senate, where Democratic leaders have vowed to block it and would need 60 votes to get it past the filibuster. At least one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has voiced opposition.
The bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (D), on Tuesday threw cold water on calls for changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to pave the way for passage, further damaging the bill’s chances of becoming law.
“There is no vote anywhere to override the filibuster, there is nothing even close to it,” Thune said at a news conference Tuesday. “So the idea keeps coming out, but there’s something about it. … It doesn’t have a future.”
But the House is moving forward.
Appearing on FOX Business on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson echoed President Trump’s baseless claim that non-citizen voters decide federal elections, saying this is a top priority for both House Republicans and the president.
“They want illegal aliens to vote. That’s why they kept the border wide open for four years[under President Joe Biden and Vice President[Kamala]Harris]and allowed all these dangerous people into the country. It was a means to an end. The end is to maintain their own power,” Johnson said.
“Frankly, they have to cheat. That’s it. For them to keep winning, they have to allow illegals to participate in elections,” he continued.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and documented cases are rare.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland, 21 million Americans do not have readily available documentation of citizenship, and 2.6 million Americans do not have any type of government-issued photo ID. Young voters and voters of color may be disproportionately affected, and women without a married name on their birth certificate may face additional barriers to registering, the Brennan Center warned.
The latest push for Republican-led election reform legislation comes nearly a year after the House introduced a similar bill, called the SAVE Act, with support from four Democrats.
An earlier version of the bill, also introduced by Roy, required proof of citizenship to register to vote but did not include a voter ID provision. It was never voted on the Senate floor.
