Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening to block election integrity legislation that would ensure noncitizens do not vote in American elections.
Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would mandate proof of citizenship during the voter registration process. Schumer threatened to filibuster the bill Wednesday evening if Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune were to bring it to the floor despite previously voting to eliminate the Senate procedural rule requiring 60 votes to advance most legislation.
“Trump and Congressional Republicans are escalating their assault on American democracy through the noxious SAVE Act,” Schumer wrote on X. “Congressional Republicans are pushing a proposal that would coerce states into instituting policies that would effectively prevent millions of American citizens from voting, stymie automatic voter registration and derail in-person voter registration drives. It is an outrage.”
“Let me be clear: Under my leadership, Senate Democrats will make sure this power grab does not pass the Senate,” Schumer continued.
Former Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama have referred to the filibuster as a “relic of the Jim Crow Era.”
Schumer notably vowed to alter the filibuster in a January 2022 letter, attacking the Senate procedural rule for allegedly preventing Democrats from passing legislation to “save” American democracy. He led 47 Senate Democrats to end the filibuster’s 60-vote requirement for “voting rights” legislation in a failed vote later that month.
Former Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Democrats turned independents, joined with Senate Republicans to prevent the filibuster change. Both former senators were sharply criticized by their colleagues for voting to preserve the Senate procedural rule that Schumer argued must “adapt” and “evolve” to pass Democrat-backed legislation.
Sinema mocked Schumer for threatening to filibuster the SAVE Act, which would be the fourth time Democrats have used the procedural requirement to block GOP-backed bills in the 119th Congress.
“Yes dear the hypocrisy is the point,” Sinema wrote in a tweet on March 15 in response to a user pointing out Senate Democrats’ flip-flop on the filibuster.
The SAVE act would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order he signed on March 25 that would strengthen voter citizenship requirements by mandating that individuals show “documentary, government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship on its voter registration forms.”
The bill previously passed the House 221 to 198 in July 2024 with five House Democrats joining their Republican colleagues to vote “yes.” The legislation ultimately died in the Senate after Schumer declined to take up the bill.
House GOP leadership is expected to bring the bill to the floor when the House resumes business next week.
GOP lawmakers have blasted congressional Democrats for opposing the election integrity bill.
“We’re just saying we’re going to ask people to simply show up and demonstrate their citizenship and so we can ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy, the lead House sponsor, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday.
Schumer’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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