House GOP advances nationwide voter ID bill ahead of pivotal 2026 elections

The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a bill that would require photo identification for voters in the United States in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

The House Rules Committee, the final watchdog before a chamber-wide vote on most bills, advanced the SAVE America Act on Tuesday as conservatives continued to pressure the Senate to take up the bill, possibly after it passes the House.

This is a sweeping law aimed at preventing non-citizens from participating in US elections.

Democrats attack the bill as tantamount to voter suppression, while Republicans argue it is necessary after millions of illegal immigrants have arrived in the United States over the four years of the Biden administration.

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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters there would be a vote on Wednesday.

The legislation is led in the House by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

This is an updated version of Roy’s Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the House in April 2025 but was never taken up in the Senate.

While the SAVE Act would create a new federal proof-of-citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and require states to keep voter rolls clear of ineligible voters, the updated bill would also require photo identification to vote at all. federal elections.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 2025 (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

It would also require sharing information between state election officials and federal officials to verify citizenship on existing voter rolls and allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pursue immigration cases if noncitizens are listed as eligible to vote.

The law has a high probability of being passed by the Parliament; The majority, but not all, of Republicans have supported similar moves in the past.

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But in the Senate, where current rules say 60 votes are needed to overcome the filibuster and hold a final vote on the bill, at least seven Democrats would be needed even if all Republicans remained together.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stops to answer questions from reporters as he arrives at a closed-door Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

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That’s why House conservatives are pushing Senate GOP leaders to change the rules to effectively eliminate the 60-vote threshold, even if the alternative means paralyzing the upper chamber with hours of incessant debate.

“[Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.] will undertake. The only question is; Is he going to handle this in an environment where he can move past it?” Roy posed for Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

“My view is that the majority leader can and should do that. I’m not afraid of amendment votes… we should put all their amendments on the table, force them to finish all their speeches, make them take the floor and filibuster.”