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House GOP Presses Senate on SAVE Act as Schumer Declares Bill 'Dead on Arrival'

The measure would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections, drawing warnings about new paperwork hurdles for eligible voters.

Overview

  • Rep. Brandon Gill and 34 House Republicans urged Senate Rules Chair Mitch McConnell to schedule a committee markup and move the bill before the 2026 midterms.
  • Sen. Chuck Schumer said Democrats will go all out to defeat the legislation, calling it a poison pill and warning that attaching it to appropriations would trigger a shutdown fight.
  • The bill passed the House 220–208 in April 2025, has 48 Republican cosponsors in the Senate, and still appears short of the 60 votes likely needed to overcome a filibuster.
  • Voting-rights advocates say the proof-of-citizenship requirement would force many married women with name changes to produce extra documents such as marriage certificates, with added burdens for low-income, Native American, and territorial voters.
  • Republicans frame the plan as an election-integrity safeguard as some push a broader SAVE America Act adding photo ID, while critics cite scant evidence of noncitizen voting and Kansas’s blocked proof-of-citizenship law as cautionary precedent.