President Donald Trump has vowed not to sign any bills into law until the SAVE America Act is passed, escalating his pressure campaign to get a sweeping voting bill across the finish line before this fall's elections.
The bill's future is murky in the Senate, where it lacks enough support to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Republicans in the Senate are divided over how to pass it and whether it’s possible to overcome Democratic opposition.
Voter impersonation and noncitizen voting — the problems the legislation purports to solve — are already illegal and extremely rare, but the impacts on American citizens and election officials would be vast. Millions of Americans are thought not to have ready access to the required documents to prove citizenship, and rapid implementation of the bill could overwhelm election officials while they're trying to run midterm elections, too.
At the same time, Trump has repeatedly misstated the contents of the legislation in his public pitches for it and called for additions to the bill that would make those claims true.
Here's what's in the bill and what's not.
What the SAVE America Act would do
Require proof of citizenship to register to vote
The bill would require Americans to show documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote — a U.S. passport, or a driver’s license paired with proof of a person’s citizenship, such as a birth certificate, a certificate of naturalization or adoption paperwork.
Most people would need to show that proof in person at an election office, though the law would allow states to create some accommodations for disabled voters. That provision would go into effect immediately, complicating voter registration in the months leading up to the midterm elections.
People who have changed their names, like many women, would require even more documentation — like marriage certificates or divorce records — to prove their identities, too.
Those provisions would go into effect immediately if the bill became law, making voter registration in the weeks before the midterms far more complicated. Primary elections have already begun in some states, and the general Election Day is less than eight months away.
Require photo ID to vote
The bill would require voters to show photo IDs to cast ballots in federal elections. For most people, that would mean showing a driver’s license at the polls, but a handful of other ID cards would be accepted, including military IDs and tribal identification cards, if they met specific requirements, such as having photos and expiration dates.
People who vote by mail would need to submit photocopies of the relevant identification documents.
The list of acceptable IDs is more restrictive than existing law in all but one state, Ohio, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
That provision might cause difficulties for some citizens. Many tribal ID cards don’t have expiration dates, according to a report by the Native American Rights Fund, and student ID cards wouldn’t be acceptable.
Proponents argue that those kinds of ID are increasingly needed in everyday life, including to fly.
The photo ID provision wouldn’t take effect until 2027.
Require states to search for noncitizen voters
The bill would also mandate processes to remove noncitizens from the polls. It would require states to submit their voter rolls to the federal SAVE database, which aims to help officials identify noncitizen voters. Election officials in at least 23 states have already begun putting some or all of their voter rolls into the database, which initial reports have found to have high error rates.
All states are required to conduct voter roll list maintenance under federal law, which includes removing the handful of noncitizens who accidentally make it on the voter rolls because of misunderstanding or clerical error.
And while there are few noncitizens on the voter rolls, naturalized citizens do sometimes get caught up in searches for noncitizen voters.
What the SAVE America Act wouldn’t do
Trump has repeatedly misstated the contents of the bill, both explicitly and by omission.
He routinely says there must be voter ID in the midterm elections when he talks up the SAVE America Act but fails to mention that the legislation's photo ID provisions wouldn’t go into effect this year.
In an interview with NBC News this week, Trump said the bill would ban mail-in voting except in certain cases. He has posted on social media that the only exceptions would be for "ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY, OR TRAVEL!"
The bill would make it harder to register to vote and cast ballots by mail, requiring most voters to show their proof of citizenship in person and to photocopy their voter IDs when they vote by mail — it wouldn’t exactly stop mail voting.
He also suggested it would add restrictions on gender-affirming medical care and restrict transgender participation in sports, which it wouldn’t.
"NO TRANSGENDER MUTILATION SURGERY FOR CHILDREN," he said this week on Truth Social.
Some Republicans are open to those ideas, but the bill would need to be rewritten, pass the House again and then pass the Senate to become law.
Will the SAVE America Act become law?
That's "still unclear," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged this week.
Trump has been amping up the pressure, saying he won't sign any legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. But the reality is: 60 votes are needed to pass such legislation through the Senate, and Republicans have only 53 seats.
Thune has said over and over that he opposes changing the Senate's rules to go around the 60-vote threshold. Some Republican proponents of the bill have suggested using a "talking filibuster" — think "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" — to hold the floor to try to wear Democrats down and let them pass it. Thune and others insist that wouldn't work.
Thune told reporters Tuesday he will bring something related to the SAVE America Act to the floor next week but reiterated that there aren’t enough votes to pass it.
"I understand the president’s got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do. ... I can guarantee the debate. I can guarantee a vote. I just can’t guarantee an outcome," he said.
