Top Democrat slams GOP voter ID, citizenship bill as voter suppression
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The House’s top Democrat claimed Monday that Republicans’ election security bill is tantamount to “voter suppression.”
House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DY) criticized the GOP-led House SAVE America Act at his weekly press conference ahead of an expected vote on the bill as early as Wednesday.
“Republicans have adopted voter suppression as an election strategy. That’s what the so-called SAVINGS Act is about,” Jeffries said.
He said the bill up for a vote this week is “worse” than the previous iteration, simply called the Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the House in April 2025 with the support of all Republicans and four Democrats.
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U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill on November 3, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
The main thrust of the SAVE Act was the implementation of a new proof of citizenship requirement in the voter registration process in all 50 states.
The new bill, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would also create a federal voter identification standard at the polls and require people to show an ID when voting in national elections.
Jeffries also accused Republicans of trying to give Americans’ data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), highlighting a provision that would require information sharing between state election officials and federal officials to verify citizenship on existing voter lists.
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“As I understand it, this version is actually [the Department of Homeland Security] authority to obtain voting records from states across the country. Why would these extremists think this is a good idea?” Jeffries said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gestures as he meets with reporters ahead of a key procedural vote to end a partial government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
“Who wants DHS and ICE to have more data on the American people when they brutally, brutally and violently target ordinary Americans? This is outrageous. There’s something really wrong with these people. I think they’re trying to lose the election at this point.”
To date, there is no confirmed evidence that non-citizen votes have affected the results of any federal election.
But Republicans argued that the influx of illegal immigrants under the Biden administration has made the issue a real possibility in the upcoming election.
However, voter ID provisions have proven popular in many polls.
A. Pew Research Center The survey, released in August 2025, showed that 83% of people supported government-issued photo ID requirements to go to vote, compared to just 16% who disapproved.
Voters line up before casting their ballots at a polling place in Dallas, Texas, on November 8, 2022. (Nitashia Johnson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Jeffries also said the bill would pass in the Senate, where current rules require at least some Democrats to overcome the filibuster and move the legislation forward.
“It won’t pass. If it passes the House, it’s dead by the time it gets to the Senate. They’re wasting time,” he said.
The real possibility of the bill failing in the Senate is why a group of House conservatives is pushing for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., to improve the chamber’s rules on the filibuster to get rid of the 60-vote threshold needed to pass it. Thune has not committed to any routes.
