[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 54 (Monday, March 23, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1532-S1533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SAVE America Act
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, we are talking again about the SAVE Act.
This is a simple piece of legislation that focuses on two key ideas:
that if you are an American citizen, which is required by law, you just
show it. I call that the ``trust and verify'' portion of the bill.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act begins with the statement ``all
citizens.'' It is already required under Federal law that you have to
be a citizen of the United States to vote. We have all agreed on that.
There is no one disputing that--Republican, Democrat, Independent. We
all agree American citizens are the ones who should decide the future
of America.
What we disagree on is, Should we check or should we just trust that
it actually is true?
I have shared in this body before, that, in Oklahoma, we passed a
statute, several years ago, saying: If you go to jury duty and you tell
a judge, ``I am not eligible to be able to serve on a jury because I am
not a citizen of the United States,'' in Oklahoma, we then check to see
if you are registered to vote. We have found quite a few folks who have
told a judge, ``I am not a citizen,'' but have told the election board,
``I want to vote anyway.'' Well, that is not legal.
In Oklahoma, we purge the voter rolls when that happens in order to
make sure those individuals who have already given sworn testimony that
they are not citizens are not also registered to vote. That is not true
everywhere across the country. Lots of folks just say: We just trust,
but we never verify. We actually don't clean up the voter rolls at all.
There are some States--and it is really fascinating to me--like
Arizona--Arizona has a State law in place right now that says: Every
person who registers to vote must also prove their citizenship.
This already exists right now.
New Hampshire has a law that says: Every person who registers to vote
has to show they are a citizen.
This is not crazy policy. This is already happening in some of our
States right now, that they have to be able to show they are a citizen.
In Arizona, though, it is a very interesting thing. In Arizona, you
can register to vote for a State election or a county election, and you
have got to be a citizen. But if you want to vote in a Federal
election, you don't have to show that you are a citizen.
If you want to talk backward, this was a case that broke out there,
in a court case for them, where they established: Oh, no, you have got
to show
[[Page S1533]]
that you are an American citizen to vote for the Governor of Arizona,
but you don't have to show that you are an American citizen to vote for
the President of the United States.
If we can figure out how to do registration to be able to protect the
rights of the individuals in Arizona to be able to vote for their
Governor if they are an American citizen, surely, we can do this all
over the country.
The SAVE America Act is simple. It just says: It is already the law
that you have to be an American citizen to vote. Let's just verify.
The State of New Hampshire is not trying to limit the number of
people voting. They are just following Federal law.
Then there is the second part, which is pretty simple: You have to
show ID to vote.
There are 36 States that already have this requirement. Let me just
run through what this means. There are already 36 States that say you
have to show an ID. Now, some of them are very narrow. They say you
have got to have a specific type of photo ID on that. That is Arkansas,
Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio,
Tennessee, Wisconsin. They all have in their State laws that you have
got to have a certain type of photo ID to actually qualify you to be
able to show up and be able to vote.
Multiple other States have some other limitation where a photo ID is,
maybe, preferred, but they can also bring other IDs. That is Arizona,
North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington State, West
Virginia, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Oklahoma,
Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
This doesn't seem very controversial to me. If you are keeping count
on fingers and toes, you ran out a while ago. There are 36 States that
already have some kind of requirement for ID to be able to vote. This
has got to be the most noncontroversial proposal sitting out there to
say: How can we disagree when 36 States already do this?
But, for some reason, in this body, it is controversial for us as a
nation to do what 36 States already do. So we bring this to the body,
yet again, as we have now for days and days and days.
The American people are just not offended with pulling out an ID at
an airport to be able to get on a plane. They are just not offended by
showing an ID when they walk into a Federal building. They are just not
offended by pulling out an ID in some places where they are going to
write a check--for those who still know how to write a check in
America. It is just not that offensive to have to pull out some sort of
identification.
State after State after State has shown that this doesn't limit the
number of people who can show up to vote. It just limits the amount of
fraud that can happen in that State when people vote.
You just can't walk up to a polling place and say, ``My name is,''
and pick a name. You have got to show something with your name on it to
vote. It is pretty straightforward, and 36 States already agree and
have already put this into practice.
So all we are trying to say is, Can we continue this as Federal law?
I think we can--and not just saying it is Federal law but actually
verifying that it is actually applied. I am a big fan of the phrase
``trust and verify.'' That is all that this does.
I would hope, at some point, we would have a breakthrough here, but,
in the meantime, I am going to continue coming back and saying: Why
can't we all agree to what most Americans nod their heads and say,
``That is a pretty good idea,'' and just get it done?
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I could not help but respond in realtime
to my very able colleague from the great State of Oklahoma. I really
wish things were as simple as my Republican friends would have us
believe.
They want us to believe that this is simply a basic voter ID bill.
Let me say the same thing I said several days ago. I believe that you
should have to prove that you are who you say you are before you vote.
But this is not a voter ID bill; this is a voter suppression bill. They
really ought to call it what it actually is. They ought to rename this
bill: ``Your Driver's License is Not Enough to Register Bill.''
Not only is your driver's license not good enough in most States,
except those States where your citizenship is a part of your driver
identification--and that is literally a handful of States--you will not
be able to register to vote using your driver's license. You will not
be able to register to vote using your student ID. You will not be able
to register to vote using your military ID.
Let's be very clear: The Republicans know that their policies are
failing; that they have kicked 15 million Americans off of their
healthcare; that they have doubled healthcare premiums for some 22
million Americans. They have dragged us or they have enabled this
President to drag us into a war--and he can't even explain why we are
there--and they want to make it difficult for everyday Americans to
hold them accountable. This will not stand. It will not succeed.
This bill especially disenfranchises women. There are many people
right now who are listening to me at home who are registered to vote
right now, and you say: Well, I have never had to prove my citizenship
in order to vote. If this bill is passed, you will. If you move, you
will have to reregister. If you change your name if you get married,
you will have to register to vote as we do, and all of a sudden your
driver's license will not be good enough. Even though you have been
voting for years--decades--that will not be good enough.
Imagine being a woman and your birth certificate does not match your
current name, so you have got to go drag out documents you haven't seen
for years in order to certify that you are a citizen.
And the question you ought to ask is, Why would they go through all
of this? Why is this necessary when there is no evidence at all that we
have some major problem of voter fraud through voter identification.
It is already illegal to vote if you are not a citizen. It is
illegal. They will deport you. You will be prosecuted under law if you
register to vote, and you are not a citizen. If you try to vote, and
you are not a citizen, it is a crime. You can be deported.
And they are trying to convince us that there are droves of people in
this country who are willing to risk deportation, risk being arrested,
risk the abuse that we are seeing visited upon American citizens by ICE
agents in realtime--that they are willing to risk all of that in droves
in order to change the outcome of an election. It defies credulity, and
it is simply not true.
Donald Trump wants to meddle with the outcome of the midterm
elections because he knows that he is losing. And citizens who are
watching this right now, not only ought you to reject this, as we are
doing on your behalf, you ought to register in droves and put this
nonsense to an end.
Democracy is the very house we live in. It is the place in which we
get to fight for the things we say matter. And little by little, they
are chipping away at the democracy itself.
Let the people speak. Let people cast their votes without having to
jump over all kinds of unnecessary barriers. Why would you
disenfranchise hundreds of thousands, millions of Americans, while
chasing a problem that does not exist? Why are you so afraid of the
voices of the people, I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle.
The most powerful words in a democracy are ``the people have
spoken.'' And we must ensure that no voter suppression bill prevents
them from speaking.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.