[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 21, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1848-S1849]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SAVE AMERICA ACT

  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, protecting the integrity of elections 
is a constitutional principle. That is why I am a proud cosponsor of 
the SAVE America Act requiring a photo ID when someone goes to vote.

[[Page S1849]]

  Now, Americans have to show a photo ID or proof of citizenship on a 
weekly basis--sometimes on a daily basis. The Presiding Officer and I 
both fly regularly to Washington, DC, and then back home. You have got 
to show who you are. You open a bank account, you show a photo ID. You 
cash a check, you show a photo ID. We mentioned boarding a plane.
  To require doing the same thing when you go to polls to vote in a 
Federal election is merely common sense. It is also not new. It is 
already a requirement in many States.
  The SAVE America Act does not make it harder to vote; it ensures that 
only American citizens vote in American elections, and that is 
constitutional.
  By the way, this is incredibly popular with the American people. 
Madam President, 71 percent of Democrats and 95 percent of Republicans 
agree you should have to show a photo ID when you go to vote, so why 
hasn't it passed? Why isn't it popular in Congress? Because Senate 
Democrats are dead set on pleasing, appeasing a small leftwing base of 
the 16 percent of the American people who oppose, so they come up with 
reasons not to pass the SAVE America Act, but these concerns have been 
addressed.
  As an example, what about people who have lost their documents and 
cannot prove citizenship? Well, the legislation says that if you are a 
citizen and you have lost your documents, or never had them, you can go 
to a State election official, swear to the details of your birth date 
and location or naturalization details, and register to vote. We have 
that option in Louisiana. That alternative process is built into the 
SAVE America Act so lack of documentation is not an issue.
  But rather than accepting that, Senate Democrats ignore the solution 
and get back to work finding another reason to oppose it, ignoring the 
fact that 70 percent of their party wants the SAVE America Act passed 
into law.
  We should be here to serve the will of the American people, and folks 
are asking for the assurance of a secure election. The SAVE America Act 
helps get that done. We should pass it.
  Now, some have said we need to go to a talking filibuster in order to 
get this done. I have supported the talking filibuster since my first 
day as a Senator in 2015, drawing inspiration from ``Mr. Smith Goes to 
Washington''--watching that movie when I was a child and seeing just 
kind of that, wow, when somebody gets up here and talks for 36 hours 
and everybody else is inconvenienced, somehow you come to a solution 
faster. I support using it now to pass the SAVE America Act to restore 
trust in our elections and carry out the will of the people.

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