SAVE Act
During the recent government funding debate, conservatives have rallied around an election integrity bill to secure American federal elections.
In 2025, the House of Representatives passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
The SAVE Act, which I helped report from the Committee on House Administration, requires states to obtain proof of citizenship when registering voters.
The bill garnered bipartisan support!
Unfortunately, this essential legislation has gone nowhere in the Senate.
The reason?
The modern filibuster/cloture rule!
In many columns, I have shared my deep exasperation with this rule. With limited exceptions, the modern filibuster requires 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to end debate on a measure and prompt a vote on the legislation.
As a result, most bills that passed the House will not even get a vote!
I have long believed this violates the original intention of basing the legislature on the principles of majority rule. This practice allows Senators to hide their positions behind a curtain of anonymity.
Because of this, many bills that pass the House are automatically “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
Therefore, lawmakers who try to serve the will of voters are stymied from doing so. It contributes to government gridlock.
Late in 2025, Senate Democrats used the modern filibuster for seemingly partisan reasons.
With the help of the filibuster, Democratic senators refused to fund the U.S. Government. Their actions threw the U.S. government into a shutdown for a record 43 days!
The 2025 long shutdown, in which one Democratic lawmaker characterized the American people’s pain and suffering as ‘leverage’, caused harm to numerous programs that support Virginia communities.
This shutdown episode further illustrated the threats that the filibuster poses to governance, federal programs and our communities. Government funding will continue to be a routine bargaining chip as long as the modern filibuster rule stays intact.
However, thanks to a renewed push to pass voting integrity measures, the Senate is engaged in fresh discussions on returning the filibuster to its historical form.
That is, where senators actually show up for debate.
The House recently advanced a new bill that is a beefed-up version of the SAVE Act.
The SAVE America Act, of which I am a co-sponsor, not only requires individuals to submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote in a federal election. The bill also mandates those who vote in a federal election must present photo ID.
Voter ID is hardly controversial.
According to different polls from Gallup and Pew Research Center, more than 80% of American citizens support photo ID to vote!
Republicans know these commonsense election reforms need to pass, which is why Republican lawmakers in both chambers are aggressively pushing Senate leadership to amend the filibuster rule.
The main reform under consideration is adopting a “standing” or “talking” filibuster rule.
Under this reform, any senator seeking to block legislation would have to do so by actively holding the floor to protest the bill.
In this scenario, any senator could talk on the floor indefinitely to block a vote. Senators would be forced to go on the record and make their arguments to the American people!
This is how the Senate was supposed to function.
As soon as a senator’s protest on the floor ends, the filibuster rule no longer stands in the way. Accordingly, the chamber could move forward with a vote on the bill.
This was the common practice until the new rule was adopted in the Senate. You may remember seeing it in action during the famous Jimmy Stewart film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
However, the Senate changed this tradition in the 1970s, allowing senators to hide behind closed doors as they place a unanimous hold on any legislation they dislike.
Senators would be shielded from having to explain tough votes to their constituents!
While a shift towards the “standing” or “talking” filibuster would not stop lawmakers from debating any bills, this important reform empowers the Senate to move forward with the business of the American people.
If the Senate follows through on this proposal, Republicans will move to enact commonsense voter ID reforms.
With support from elected officials and the American public, I am hopeful that the Senate moves to enact this critical institutional reform, restore proper debate in the U.S. Senate and vote on the SAVE America Act.
I will continue to urge the Senate to abandon the modern filibuster/cloture “hide behind the curtain” rule.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov/. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
February 14, 2026 @ 8:22 pm
I believe it when election officials say that voter fraud is so infrequent that it has never been remotely close to changing the outcome of any election. Since 2020 there have been multiple vote recounts in many states and localities that have all shown that every election has been secure and accurate, what small fraud there is almost all found or eliminated prior to the election. Never anywhere has any evidence of fraud been found that would even begin to approach any election. I do find it interesting that the Trump administration suddenly eliminated private, not for profit libraries from being passport providers. eliminating about 700 libraries just as legislation that would require a passport or birth certificate to vote is being pushed. I don’t believe this is coincidence. Also, since the government is responsible for seeing that every legal voter gets to vote, I believe Congress should make funds available to pay for whatever documentation will be required for those low enough on the income scale. There are people that would have to decide whether to pay for an ID or medicine or rent or food. Maybe this is part of the strategy to suppress the vote. I am not aware of Griffith ever endorsing a measure such as this. Again, is this purposeful?
February 14, 2026 @ 11:11 am
Virtually everyone in today’s society has an ID. If you are a citizen, you’ve had an ID that began with your driver’s license, or equivalent, where a birth certificate or its equivalent was required. That license verifies your citizenship and entitles you to protected rights and privileges. A legitimate birth certificate can be obtained by a citizen seeking a passport when a license won’t do. A valid license allows your placement on the voting rolls. The argument that somehow millions of people do not possess valid ID’s is specious and defies logic. Our election system integrity is currently undermined by voter fraud and recent reports show that rigged state elections have corrupted both state and national elections in favor of the less popular candidate. Dirty voting rolls populated with ineligible, illegal and deceased individuals along with electronic voting machines are the means to artificially increase votes for candidates who would otherwise lose. Unscrupulous politicians and dubious election results are the price every citizen pays for a permanent one-party government ushered in by rigged elections. This problem needs to be addressed now, or we will lose our constitutional freedoms. The SAVE Act is needed to protect our constitutional republic.
February 14, 2026 @ 9:53 am
Illegals voting in federal elections wasn’t a widespread problem in this country. The members of Congress elected in 2020 all took their victory laps and the defeated went home. Not one of them said the election had widespread fraud or gave up their seat.
We should want more people to vote instead of less. We, the people, should turn out the vote.
SAVE Act is a part of Project 2025 voter suppression. Using debunked claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election and widespread fraud to create a barrier to voters.
It is also unconstitutional. The 24th Amendment says:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
Passports, original birth certificates, legal name changes, and driver’s licenses are not free. People are living paycheck to paycheck right now. An extra expense for a nonexistent problem. Less people voting is the goal.
Every eligible voter needs to get registered to vote. Contact your local elections or state election office for the process before it changes.
February 14, 2026 @ 7:51 am
If this SAVE Act does indeed prevent illegal voters, those who are not US Citizens, as defined by law, anyone who is not registered to legally vote, or do not possess a valid form of ID which matches their voter registration……than most would say this is a step in the right direction. It may also prevent voter fraud with dead people voting, having someone vote more than once, wall sorts of nefarious schemes to cheat – regardless of political affiliation or, lack thereof. Why would any American or any political party oppose this?
February 13, 2026 @ 7:06 pm
The SAVE Act is a voter suppression bill.
The SAVE Act is considered a voter suppression bill because it imposes strict documentation requirements that could block millions of eligible voters from participating in elections, particularly affecting marginalized communities. It requires proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, which many Americans do not have readily available.
Do YOU have a passport? Do you know where your birth certificate is?
If you answer “no” to either of these, then you cannot vote.
The SAVE Act is a voter suppression bill.