WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to push Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping voting law that supporters say will make elections more secure and critics say risks disenfranchising millions of voters.
The push has taken on new urgency as the U.S. Senate continues to consider the bill after a two-week recess.
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The president said the bill, which would create higher documentary standards to prove citizenship when registering to vote and voting, is a top priority heading into the November midterm elections that will decide who controls the House and Senate.
The bill has almost universal support from Republicans, with Democrats remaining largely unanimous in their opposition. The bill was passed by the Republican-controlled House in February along party lines.
The bill has since stalled in Congress, where Republicans control 53 of the 100 seats, falling short of the 60 votes needed for passage.
So unless party leaders seek to change the House’s longstanding rules, the transformative approach will be seen as a “nuclear” option, with implications for years to come.
Here’s what you need to know:
What does the SAVE America Act do?
The version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, passed by the House of Representatives in February, requires voters to provide proof of citizenship (birth certificate or passport) when registering to vote. It would also tighten voter identification requirements for individuals voting, whether by mail or in person.
Under the U.S. Constitution, states administer elections and currently have different processes for registering voters and verifying citizenship. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal, and everyone who registers to vote certifies under threat of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen.
The bill does not fund a new verification process that would go into effect once the bill is signed.
The bill would also require all states to create voter rolls through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “Alien Verification Eligibility” system to identify potential noncitizens who are already registered.
This includes criminal penalties for election officials who register voters without the required documents.
What is President Trump saying about the SAVE Act?
U.S. presidents have long argued that the nation’s elections are marred by widespread fraud, including non-referendum voting, despite no evidence to support these claims.
Even the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has influenced many of President Trump’s policies, has found extremely rare instances of voter fraud in U.S. elections over the decades.
Trump’s focus on election administration dates back to his 2020 loss to former US President Joe Biden, which he continues to claim was a result of “stolen” votes. Again, no evidence has emerged to support those claims.
The president called the SAVE America Act “one of the most important and consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress and of America itself.”
He vowed in March that he would not sign any other legislation until it passed. He also made it clear that he will not support any Republican senator who does not support this bill.
President Trump also told party members in March that passing the bill would “guarantee” success not only in the midterm elections but for years to come.
Several Republican leaders have embraced Mr. Trump’s message, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying opponents of the bill “want to get illegal aliens to vote.”
What are critics saying about the SAVE Act?
Critics say the bill amounts to widespread voter disenfranchisement and would create onerous barriers to addressing what some studies have shown is a temporarily rare problem of noncitizens registering to vote.
Some studies show that about 11 percent of voters do not have a birth certificate and 52 percent do not have a valid passport. Overall, a recent study by several election monitoring groups found that about 9 percent of U.S. voters, or about 21.3 million people, do not have easy access to documents proving their citizenship.
Several groups, including the Bipartisan Policy Center, argue that the bill risks doing more harm than good. Data from the USCIS Voter Verification System, which some states already use to identify noncitizens on voter rolls, found that only 0.04 percent of the cases reviewed were flagged as possible noncitizens.
But as the Bipartisan Policy Center noted, a study by Travis County, Texas, found that a quarter of voters who displayed the USCIS flag actually provided proof of citizenship, and evidence suggests this rate may be significantly lower.
In another example, a study of all registered voters in Utah from 2025 to 2026 found that out of more than 2 million voters, only one noncitizen registered to vote. There were no confirmed cases of noncitizens actually voting.
Democratic leaders echoed those criticisms, while accusing Trump of trying to influence the outcome of the midterm elections as part of a long-running effort to politicize voting administration.
“What Republicans are trying to save with this bill is just trying to save themselves in the next election,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week.
Is it possible to affect women or name changes?
A key issue for opponents of the bill is that it could create new barriers for individuals, primarily women, who change their last name for marriage or other reasons.
According to the League of Women Voters, a leading opponent of the bill, an estimated 69 million women in the United States do not have easy access to documents linking their current legal name to their birth name.
The group argues that requiring additional documentation from some married women creates inherent inequalities in the system.
Opponents argue that the law would create even more specific barriers for individuals who move regularly, including military personnel, and those affected by disruptive life changes such as natural disasters.
What does this have to do with the filibuster?
The so-called “filibuster” is a procedural rule in the Senate that can be used to require 60 votes to pass most legislation, rather than a simple majority of 51 votes in the 100-seat chamber.
Minority parties have long used this rule to mollify the majority party, and Republicans and Democrats rarely hold the filibuster-proof 60 seats.
This is an independent rule set by the Senate and could easily be repealed by the party in power. But doing so has long been considered a “nuclear” option. It would provide short-term benefits to the majority party, but it would weaken the party if it becomes a minority in future elections.
Nevertheless, President Trump has increased pressure on Senate Republican leaders to repeal the rule, writing in Truth Social in March that they needed to “abolish the filibuster.”
What happens next?
The bill is still being debated in the Senate, but it is highly unlikely that the bill will undergo a major change in support.
Republicans are unlikely to bring the bill to a vote if they lack support for it.
There are currently no plans to vote to abolish the filibuster, which would only require a simple majority vote.
Lawmakers also have yet to pursue other, more gradual procedural maneuvers to pass the bill without 60 votes.
