Republicans narrowly advanced their hotly debated voter ID legislation on Wednesday, marking the second time the proof-of-citizenship legislation has passed the lower chamber in the last year.
But the party still has a long way to go before those requirements can be enacted into law.
The House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, in a 218-213 vote on Wednesday, overcoming the simple majority needed to send the bill to the Senate. The bill passed mostly along party lines, with just one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, joining all Republicans to advance the measure.
The SAVE America Act, in many different iterations and forms, has been floated in Congress for years. But public pressure has increased in recent weeks thanks to conservative figures such as President Donald Trump and Utah Sen. Mike Lee pushing for stricter voter requirements in federal elections.
If passed, the bill would implement proof-of-citizenship criteria to register and it would require voters to produce photo identification when their ballot is turned in.
While it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections and all voters must verify their citizenship, this legislation would go a step further by making voters prove it. That would entail showing identification that is compliant with the most recent Real ID guidelines, a passport or some other citizenship document when registering to vote.
Democrats oppose voter ID bill over access concerns
The proposal has caused deep divisions between the two political parties as Democrats accuse Republicans of wanting to make it more difficult for minority groups or even married women to vote.
Voter ID itself is popular across the country, including among Democratic voters. However, congressional Democrats have expressed concerns about the requirements to provide physical documents — particularly for those who do not have those readily available.
For example, only half of Americans were projected to have passports as of January 2026, and even fewer have access to their birth certificates. The latter is especially difficult for women who are recently married and have changed their last names, who would need to reregister, provide citizenship documents, and offer evidence as to why their name no longer matches their birth certificate, Democrats say.
Lee has pushed back against those criticisms, arguing the bill contains language that would make it possible for those women to still cast a ballot.
“The SAVE America Act provides multiple ways to prove citizenship, as millions of Americans do every day for work, travel, and financial transactions,” Lee told the Deseret News. “It’s sad that congressional Democrats are so afraid of election security that they’re willing to spread falsehoods about commonsense safeguards supported by a majority of both Republicans and Democrats across the country.”
Can the SAVE America Act get a vote in the Senate?
Despite passing the House twice in the last year, the SAVE America Act has never gotten a vote in the Senate — something Lee has been pressuring GOP leaders to change over the last two months.
Republicans only hold 53 seats in their slim Senate majority, but because of modern filibuster rules, the majority party would need at least seven Democrats to buck party lines to advance the measure. But Democratic senators are adamantly opposed.
“While the specific policies may have changed since the days of the Jim Crow South, the goal of the SAVE Act is the same: disenfranchising American citizens and making it harder for eligible people to vote, particularly low income Americans and people of color,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Monday.
Lee is exploring alternative ways to get around the filibuster, including a proposal to revive what is known as the talking filibuster — the original structure used by the Senate that requires senators to be present on the floor and actively speaking in order to stall a vote. Doing so would circumvent the 60-vote threshold, Lee argued, without needing to overhaul chamber procedure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there is a “robust conversation” ongoing among Republicans about how to bring the SAVE America Act to the floor, but no decisions have been made.
“You ought to be able to prove that you’re a citizen of this country in order to be able to vote,” Thune said on Tuesday, noting he endorses the legislation. “How we get to that vote remains to be seen.”