Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act to Congress’s next spending bill, stressing that “it must come up for a vote.” prior to the November election.
The SAVE Act, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and backed by former President Donald Trump, would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require people to provide proof of citizenship before registering to vote. Lee explained that voters being required to show their proof of citizenship is similar to when people show their citizenship when applying for a new job in the United States.
“So with the SAVE Act, what we’re saying is we should require nothing less to vote in federal elections than you have to establish when you start a new job,” Lee said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “When you attach that to a spending bill, and that’s the best way to move that through, to make sure that the 10 million plus illegal immigrants who have come in in the last 3 and a half years, and the estimated roughly 30 million noncitizens total in the United States aren’t voting in this November’s election.”
When asked if he believes House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will require the SAVE Act to be attached to the upcoming spending bill, Lee contended that Johnson doing this would show “a great contrast” between the two political parties. He explained that by requiring the Senate to vote on this spending bill with the SAVE Act, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would be required to decide if he wants to pick a fight with the SAVE Act and risk a government shutdown.
In the meantime, Lee commended states like Virginia and Alabama for taking any actions they could to boost the security of the 2024 election, and encouraged other states to follow suit.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The White House rebuked the SAVE Act in a statement last month, arguing that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and that this bill is “based on easily disproven falsehoods.”
Lee cautioned Republicans to take Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 bid for the White House seriously, believing it is entirely possible she “could win.” He also suggested Harris could win “because she’s got this media industrial complex that’s completely behind her,” referencing the positive coverage she has received from the press since joining the 2024 race.
