[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 47 (Monday, March 16, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1053-S1054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            SAVE America Act

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Americans are watching in horror as 
Donald Trump bumbles this country into war. The latest job numbers show 
our economy is even weaker than we thought. But what are MAGA 
Republicans prioritizing in the Senate this week? They are conspiring 
with Donald Trump to undermine democracy and disenfranchise millions of 
Americans by pushing the SAVE Act.
  MAGA Republicans want to drag this Chamber down and waste time on a 
bill that not too long ago was considered fringe but now is part of the 
Republican mainstream. Not a single Democrat will support the SAVE Act. 
It is a radical bill, and if Republicans try to burn time on this 
legislation here on the floor, we will oppose them for as long as it 
takes.
  Donald Trump and Senate Republicans know their numbers are sinking 
badly. They know the American people are souring on their agenda. They 
know that with each passing day, their prospects for November get 
worse. So what do they do? Do they change course? Do they try to work 
with Democrats to lower grocery costs, stop the Iran war, help lower 
people's energy bills? No. Instead, MAGA Republicans try to rig 
democracy and disenfranchise American citizens. That is exactly what 
the SAVE Act is all about.
  Remember, all the election laws that govern how the 2026 midterms 
will operate were in place during the 2024 election--the election of 
Donald Trump again. The laws that will be in effect in 2026 were the 
same laws during the 2024 election. That was the election that Donald 
Trump won. You don't hear Donald Trump and Republicans complain that 
the 2024 election was rigged.
  But now the main difference is that Donald Trump and Republicans are 
horribly unpopular. So, suddenly, they want to change the rules. Donald 
Trump said it himself. He said if Republicans pass the SAVE Act, 
``it'll

[[Page S1054]]

guarantee the midterms.'' He is saying: Fix the election so that we can 
win.
  This isn't the first time he has tried to do that, albeit in a 
different way this time.
  Think about that. The President of the United States is saying out 
loud that making it harder to vote will help his party win. That is how 
an autocrat talks. That is how a thug talks. That is how someone who 
knows they are about to lose talks.
  Now, MAGA Republicans keep calling this voter ID, but the SAVE Act is 
not a voter ID bill; it is a voter suppression bill. The SAVE Act would 
make it easier to buy an AR-15 than to register to vote. Republicans 
won't tell Americans, for example, that under the SAVE Act, States 
would be required to hand over voter records to be screened through a 
DHS system rebuilt by Elon Musk's DOGE squad. Do you think that is on 
the level? No way.
  This is not about protecting democracy; this is about giving Trump 
and his allies more power to decide who gets to vote and who does not. 
If, God forbid, this bill passed and your State turned over its 
election rolls and it went through the system that DOGE has imposed at 
DHS, you could be very easily purged from the rolls through no fault of 
your own and nothing you have done. But once you are purged, you may 
not even know that you were purged until you show up to cast your 
ballot on election day.
  Republicans won't tell Americans that their bill would wipe out the 
most common ways Americans register to vote. No more registering by 
mail. No more voter registration drives at churches or on college 
campuses. No more registration when you get a driver's license.
  Under the SAVE Act, Americans would be forced to register in person 
even though only 6 percent of Americans registered in person to vote in 
2022, and Republicans want to make this the only option. They won't 
tell Americans that a driver's license or State-issued ID would no 
longer be enough to register.
  Indeed, many Americans would need additional paperwork like a 
passport or a birth certificate. Fewer than half of Americans even have 
a passport. Millions of Americans do not have easy access to a birth 
certificate. If you changed your name after marriage, you could run 
into problems too.
  And now, Donald Trump says he doesn't even want vote by mail. Tell 
that to seniors, tell that to disabled Americans, tell that to 
Americans who live in rural communities far from an election office. 
Put simply, the SAVE Act is designed to make it harder to vote and 
easier to steal an election.
  Once again, let me just repeat: You can be purged from the rolls. 
There is no requirement that you be notified that you were purged. You 
did nothing wrong. You were the same person who voted that way 2 years 
earlier.
  And guess what. You show up at the polling place, and they say: 
Sorry, Mr. Jones, sorry Ms. Smith, you are not on the rolls anymore. 
You had no way of knowing, and then you can't vote because you are just 
finding out when you show up to the polls to vote on election day. It 
is outrageous. It is cynical. It is un-American. It is autocratic.
  Donald Trump knows that if the election is fair, he could lose. So 
instead of changing his policies, he and the MAGA Republicans--now, all 
we see are so many Republicans, too many, seem to be going along, want 
to make it harder for Americans to vote.
  That is who Donald Trump is. He is a bully. He does not know how to 
persuade. He threatens. He coerces. And now he is trying to do that to 
American democracy itself.
  Senate Democrats will not let Donald Trump ram this bill through the 
Senate, not this week, not next week, not ever.