U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S., speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate Republican Caucus Policy Luncheon at the Capitol on January 13, 2026 in Washington.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Rapper Nicki Minaj also supports it. Elon Musk says it’s important to preserve American democracy. The SAVE America Act’s voter identification bill has been a hot topic among Republican hardliners this week, and could be considered in Congress next week.
The bill, backed by President Donald Trump, is scheduled for a vote in the House next week amid a pressure campaign from right-wing commentators and many congressional Republicans. The bill would set off a showdown with Democrats and voting rights advocates who say such a proposal could disenfranchise millions of Americans, and with Senate Republican leaders who have called for changes to the filibuster to pave the way for passage.
President Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday: “The American election was fraudulent, stolen, and has become the laughing stock of the world. We either fix it or we’re no longer a country.” The president pushed for passage of a bill called the “Save America Act,” which would require a government-issued photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Democratic lawmakers are among those outraged by the proposal, which is rooted in Trump’s baseless claims that the election is rife with fraud and comes against the backdrop of the president’s recent comments about nationalizing elections and last week’s FBI raid on Georgia’s election office, which was witnessed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.Y.) said this week that the voter ID bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, and compared the bill introduced in the House by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to “Jim Crow 2.0.”
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. Low-income and minority voters are more likely to lack the types of documentation required by the country’s voter ID laws, leading to decreased voting participation among these groups.
“Document verification for citizenship provisions will be extremely burdensome for many Americans, most of whom do not have driver’s licenses or identification cards that identify them as American citizens,” Nicole Hansen, a policy adviser at the Campaign Legal Center, said in an interview.
“We truly view this bill as part of a broader effort by the president and his allies in Congress to sow the seeds of questioning the results of the 2026 election that they don’t like,” Hansen said.
The general concept of voter ID requirements has broad public support, and voting rights advocates warn that the devil is in the details. According to an August 2025 Pew poll, 95% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats support voter ID. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 84 percent of Americans support voter ID and 83 percent support proof of citizenship for voter registration. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and there are few documented cases.
“The American people are clear: They support Voter ID and agree that only American citizens should vote in elections,” Roy said in a statement Thursday.
However, Democrats have vowed to block the bill, so it is unlikely to pass in the Senate. Due to Senate procedural rules and the chamber’s balance of power, the bill needs Democratic votes to pass.
Another proposal, also introduced by Roy and also called the SAVE Act, would have prohibited noncitizens from voting, but without the voter ID element. Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but there are provisions that allow noncitizens to vote in some lower-level elections. The House voted 220-208 for the bill in April, with four Democrats supporting it, but it has not yet been voted on in the Senate.
As a result, some lawmakers are calling for an end to the filibuster, which has been in place since the 1970s, and a return to the “standing filibuster” made famous by the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” In order to block a bill, opposing members must actively hold the floor.
“The modern-day filibuster is a perversion of the Senate’s original function. Instead of taking a stand and trying to pass legislation, it has become a way for senators, most of whom were elected with the president’s help, to circumvent that work and block the president’s policies in the name of institutional superiority,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), one of the most vocal members of the group pushing for legislation. Voter ID Laws, Posted This Week on X.
During an appearance on Punchbowl News’ “Fly Out Day” podcast, Luna floated the idea of incorporating the SAVE America Act into a larger bill that must be passed in the future.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Newsmax this week, “We should nuke the so-called zombie filibuster, the ability for Democrats to filibuster without lifting a finger, and demand a good old-fashioned talking filibuster.”
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican who promised to vote on the Republican election bill, expressed skepticism about filibuster reform.
“We will vote on the SAVE Act at some point,” Thune said at a press conference earlier this week. “I think everyone knows where the vote is when it comes to the filibuster.”
