Senate GOP plows forward on SAVE America Act amid pressure from right

The Senate is planning to debate and vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, called the SAVE America Act, through this weekend as Senate conservatives warn that a failure to make significant progress on President Trump’s No. 1 legislative priority could result in Republican voters sitting out the election in November.

The Senate is expected to vote Saturday on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a staunch Trump ally, to bar transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.

Then the Senate will pivot to vote Sunday on a motion to advance the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which would set up a final confirmation vote for Mullin on Monday.

The Senate will then move back to debating the SAVE America Act, which conservatives want to keep on the floor for weeks longer.

“If we don’t get it done or at least do everything we possibly can to try to get it passed, I think there is a very significant risk that our own base doesn’t show up for us in November,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a leading proponent of the bill.

“We also worry about the integrity and security of our elections. Nobody knows exactly how things will pan out in part because we don’t yet know the extent of the problem,” he said, referring to the prospect of noncitizens voting in the midterm elections.

“What we do know is that in states that have started reviewing the voter registration files in order to weed out those [ineligible people] who might have registered, perhaps inadvertently … already there have been thousands of voter registration files identified in just the handful of states doing their own reviews,” Lee said.

He said Democratic-led states are not reviewing their voter files and “refusing even to share their voter registration files with federal officials … which begs the question, why?”

Trump told House Republican lawmakers at an issues conference in Doral, Fla., earlier this month that Republicans would be in “big trouble” if they don’t pass the SAVE America Act before the midterm elections.

Other Trump allies warn the bill is a top concern of voters this election year.

“I think it’s important for voters,” said Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), a former chair of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. “If you want to get elected, you focus on the things that people care about.

“In my state, this is really important to people. It’s important to Democrats, Republicans and independents, so I’m going to keep fighting for it. I’m not going to give up.”

Trump on Tuesday called the SAVE America Act “one of the most IMPORTANT & CONSEQUENTIAL pieces of legislation in the history of Congress, and America itself.”

“NO MORE RIGGED ELECTIONS!” he posted on Truth Social.

Some Republican senators, however, say that while passing the SAVE America Act is important, they don’t see it as necessarily pivotal to keeping Republican control of the Senate and House in November.

And some GOP senators are chafing at Republican colleagues who are whipping up support for the bill through social media, putting more pressure on the Senate to pass the bill.

“I would say everything has an effect [on the outcome of the midterm elections]. I wouldn’t say this would be the effect,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “There’s still a lot of time to November.”

Some Republicans see the strength of the economy and voters’ views about costs and affordability as bigger issues in November.

Some GOP lawmakers grumble that the most outspoken proponents of the SAVE America Act are creating unrealistic expectations for passing the bill, which needs 60 votes and the support of seven to 10 Democrats to overcome a filibuster.

“I’ve heard the leader say, and I’ve been in news conferences where he’s said, we do not have the votes to pass this,” Capito said, referring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

“I think laying it on the line for one particular vote within your own conference is — I don’t agree with the tactics,” she added.

Democrats argue that incidents of noncitizens voting in federal elections are rare.

The Fair Elections Center, a nonpartisan voting rights advocacy organization, points out that the conservative Heritage Foundation has found only 99 incidents of noncitizens voting going back to 2000.

But Lee says noncitizens voting in U.S. elections is more prevalent than Democrats admit.

He said there are “a handful of states in which some local elections openly allow noncitizens to vote” and where local officials have declined to explain how they ensure those noncitizen voters aren’t also voting in federal elections.

It is already illegal under current law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

San Francisco allows resident noncitizens whose kids attend local schools to vote in school board elections while several municipalities in Maryland and Vermont permit noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).

Washington, D.C., began allowing noncitizen residents to vote in local elections in 2022, according to the BPC.

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