Sen. Lee expresses confidence Speaker Johnson will attach voter ID bill to continuing resolution

Congress will need to pass a bill in September to fund the government to stave off a potential shutdown. Utah Sen. Mike Lee wants House Speaker Mike Johnson to attach a voter ID bill to the must-pass spending bill, and Johnson is reportedly considering the idea.
The voter registration bill, known as the SAVE Act, would require proof of U.S. citizenship before people can register to vote in federal elections. Lee and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, sponsored the bill, which came after Johnson, R-La., went to Mar-a-Lago to discuss election integrity with former President Donald Trump.
“The SAVE Act would simply require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, something the vast majority of Americans support,” said Lee in a statement. “Unfortunately, Senate Democrats do not agree, and will not voluntarily bring up the SAVE Act for a vote.”
“That’s why Speaker Johnson is adopting our strategy to attach it to a must-pass continuing resolution, which will fund the federal government into early 2025. Are Democrats willing to withhold funding for the entire federal government rather than secure American elections? I hope not,” continued Lee.
A spokesperson for Johnson did not return a request for comment.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Roy referred the Deseret News to an interview Roy did on the “War Room” podcast. There Roy said he thought the SAVE Act should be attached to any of the upcoming appropriations bills. He said he is working with Johnson and House Republicans, and is “pretty confident” House Republicans will bring up a continuing resolution with the SAVE Act attached during the first week of September.
While Johnson is considering attaching the voter ID bill to a continuing resolution, top staffers for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have reportedly argued against attaching the SAVE Act to a spending bill. They cited fears Democrats would try to attach a bill requiring states with voting rights violations to seek federal approval before changing their voting laws.
“One fear is such a move would open the door for Democrats to tack on their own voting-related legislation,” two GOP aides familiar with the conversation told Axios. Congress needs to pass spending bills before Sept. 30 in order to keep the government running.
A spending bill with the SAVE Act attached is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate — and President Joe Biden said he would not sign the bill. But in July, the House passed the SAVE Act.
It passed mostly along party lines, with five Democrats voting for it (two from Texas, one each from Maine, North Carolina and Washington). The House’s top Republican has indicated his strong support of the bill.
Johnson threw his weight behind the SAVE Act when Lee and Roy introduced it. At a press conference where the three men spoke, Johnson said given the “razor-thin” election margins and number of noncitizens in the U.S., election results could be different if noncitizens cast ballots.
Amid news of McConnell’s staffers arguing against attaching the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution, Johnson signaled his willingness to do so.
“I can verify for you that the SAVE Act is a big part of this conversation,” said Johnson, on a press call last week, The Hill reported. “And it is not just the Freedom Caucus — it is members across the conference who share the same concern that we do about this. And we believe it’s one of the — perhaps the most urgent issue, the most imminent threat facing the country, is the integrity of this election cycle.”
Rep. Andy Biggs had told The Hill that he thought Johnson might actually attach the SAVE Act to a spending bill, but was unsure of the outcome that would follow. “The question really would be, does it get out of the House? And I don’t know.” The Arizona Republican said it would be better to do actual spending bills rather than a continuing resolution.
The House Freedom Caucus came out earlier this month in favor of attaching the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution, should Congress fail to negotiate spending bills.
The conservative voting bloc made its official position known in a statement encouraging Republican leadership to leverage its position in the September spending bills to pass the bill. The caucus said House Republicans should pass all 12 bills to make spending cuts.
“If unsuccessful, in the inevitability that Congress considers a continuing resolution, government funding should be extended into early 2025 to avoid a lame duck omnibus that preserves Democrat spending and policies well into the next administration,” the statement said, adding they want the continuing resolution to include the SAVE Act.
The Biden administration issued a statement opposing the SAVE Act in July.
“This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” said the statement, adding the administration thought noncitizen voting was “extraordinary rare.”
In most other Western democracies, voters are required to show ID to vote. For example, in France, a voter needs to provide proof of citizenship to vote. In the U.K., voters need to provide a photo ID to vote as well. According to The Guardian, other European countries including Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy have voter ID laws.
Most the 38 member countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development expect voters to show ID when they vote, according to The New York Times.
There is a difference between the U.S. and some of these countries like France and Greece with how IDs are issued — many countries have national ID laws, while the U.S. allows states to set requirements and issue IDs (most commonly, a driver’s license).
“Voter-ID requirements are the norm in many countries, as Republicans are fond of pointing out. But so are national ID cards,” wrote Russell Berman for The Atlantic. “In places such as France and Germany, citizens pick up their identity card when they turn 16 and present it once they’re eligible to vote.”
Political scientist Magdalena Krajewska estimated at least 170 out of almost 200 countries have currently or will have a form of national ID, Berman wrote. While some like Berman have expressed support for a national ID, others see it as government overreach.
Polling data among U.S. adults shows widespread bipartisan support for voter ID laws. Eighty-one percent of Americans said in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey they support requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote, with 95% of Republicans and 69% of Democrats saying they support ID requirements.
A 2022 Gallup poll showed 79% of Americans surveyed said they support requiring photo ID to vote. A political difference was more visible in this poll: 97% of Republicans, 84% of independents and 53% of Democrats supported the measure. In both of these polls, respondents also said they want citizens to be automatically registered to vote.
A handful of states have taken a closer look at their voter rolls as the conversation about the SAVE Act has stretched on.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen issued a press release on Aug. 13 saying he identified 3,251 people who were given noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security on voting rolls. Allen said some of the people on the list may have become naturalized citizens since they were given the noncitizen ID number.
In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose launched an audit of the state’s database earlier this year.
“We’ve so far identified 597 individuals who’ve registered to vote in Ohio despite not being citizens of the United States,” said LaRose in a statement, adding 138 of those individuals appeared to have cast a ballot in an Ohio election. He said some of these registrations could be honest mistakes.
“We need to help them get that cleared up before an accidental registration becomes an illegal vote that could result in a felony conviction or even deportation,” said LaRose.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order with the aim of protecting the casting of legal ballots. The order said between January 2022 and July 2024, the state removed 6,303 noncitizens from the voter rolls.
“Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens, and Virginia elections should be decided by Virginians,” Youngkin told Fox News. He said the executive order was important because it ensured the voter rolls were accurate.