House Republicans are working to put one of their top issues back in the spotlight: requiring photo IDs to vote.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has threatened to shut down the House floor next month if the Senate won’t take up a bill that would require proof of citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections.
And with the midterms on the horizon, House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., this week unveiled a sprawling proposal that checks off several other items on his election integrity wish list.
“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity — including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” Steil said in a statement.
It comes after Steil helmed a similar effort in the 118th Congress, describing it as “the most conservative election bill to be seriously considered in the House in the generation.” This time the Wisconsin Republican is tying his push even more explicitly to President Donald Trump’s agenda, dubbing it the Make Elections Great Again Act.
Democrats have largely dismissed the GOP’s focus on election integrity as an attempt to suppress turnout and satisfy Trump, pointing to his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
“This bill is their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote,” House Administration ranking member Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
When asked about FBI agents searching a Georgia elections center this week, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Donald Trump continues to want to litigate the fact that he lost the 2020 election. I don’t understand how he thinks this is going to help his position.”
The package unveiled by Steil would require voters to present a photo ID, ban the use of universal mail-in ballots and block states from using ranked-choice voting in federal elections. It would also require people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote.
Saving the SAVE Act
While noncitizens are already barred from voting in federal elections, advocates say they want more documentary proof. Asking people to show a passport or various other documents would safeguard voter registration, they argue.
A similar voter citizenship bill is at the heart of the push led by Luna, who has threatened to block action on the House floor until her demands are met.
She wants the Senate to hold a vote on what’s known as the SAVE Act, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. The House passed that bill last April, but the Senate has yet to take it up.
“If the Senate does not pass the SAVE Act and/or schedule a date for a vote by the time we return, I have enough votes from other members to shut down the floor of the House,” Luna posted on X last week.
On Thursday, Rep. William R. Timmons IV joined the short list of members who have publicly said they will join Luna in her stance.
In the past, Luna has been willing to be a thorn in the side of House leadership to advance her priorities, such as curbing stock trading in Congress and pushing proxy voting for new parents. Her tactics have included voting against procedural measures on the floor, organizing small groups of defectors or filing discharge petitions.
Any delays on the House floor could pose a problem as Congress works to find a way forward on Homeland Security funding amid an uproar over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
This week, Lee said he was “retrofitting” his proposal to add in further ID requirements. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “At some point we’ll have that vote. I’m for it.”
Lee and Roy unveiled their updated bill Thursday evening, dubbed the SAVE America Act, which would require ID for both registration and voting.
Most Republican senators had signed on to the original SAVE Act as of this week, with Sen. Charles E. Grassley becoming the latest. But with no Democratic co-sponsors, its odds appeared long.
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