Chapter 1: What is the SAVE America Act and why is it significant?
The Save America Act, if passed, would be one of the biggest revisions of voter rights since the Voting Rights Act, potentially disenfranchising tens of millions of voters. The bill, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and tighten identification rules at the polls, passed the House earlier this year.
But President Donald Trump is pushing for an even tougher version in the Senate and warning Republicans not to accept what he calls a watered-down bill. He's also raised the ante politically, essentially staking the GOP's control of Congress' risk in the midterms on its passage. It'll guarantee the midterms. It'll guarantee the midterms. If you don't get it, big trouble.
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, March 16th, 2026. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he plans to bring the Save America Act up for a vote this week. So what exactly would the bill do? And does it have any real chance of becoming law? Joining me now to break it down is USA Today congressional reporter Zach Shermley.
Chapter 2: What are the main requirements of the SAVE America Act?
Zach, it's so good to have you back. Thanks for having me. Zach, first tell me, what's in the version of the Save America Act that the Senate might vote on this week?
So this is a tough question to answer, I think, given the political context, because there have been several versions of this legislation that have been proposed and the president himself has given some mixed messages about what specifically he wants to be in this bill. The bill that's going to go before the Senate this week requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
That's probably the most important piece of the legislation because currently the federal government requires that that only US citizens can vote in state and federal elections. But it really leaves it up to states to enforce that process. Secretaries of state at the federal level, of course, are the folks who are in charge of foreign policies.
But at the state level, it's folks who are in charge of administering elections and ensuring that they are free from fraud and those types of things. The Save America Act would also require photo ID to vote. Republicans and Democrats very broadly are pretty much in agreement about photo identification requirements being a relatively good thing.
And then it would require states to search for non-citizen voters. These are pretty significant requirements. And voting rights advocates argue that although these new requirements would, you know, on their face be good in terms of helping to shore up the security of elections, create really significant hurdles for millions of Americans potentially.
Practically speaking, what kinds of documents would qualify to prove citizenship and what obstacles might this pose for voters? So there are a number of different types of documents that could potentially be eligible for demonstrating a proof of citizenship. You know, birth certificates, passports, all those types of things would help folks.
But it's important to acknowledge that there are lots of citizens that don't necessarily have birth certificates. these types of documents readily available. The Center for American Progress, which is a progressive think tank, has shown that 146 million American citizens do not have a valid passport.
They also note that 69 million women who have married do not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name and thus would face potentially additional hurdles to voting. Now, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt has cast cold water on that argument that married women in particular would face additional hurdles to voting if the Save America Act passed.
She says that married women are smart and we shouldn't discount the fact that they would figure out how to get around those requirements when registering to vote. But it's really important to consider in the context of voting in the United States that anyone single hurdle could be the difference between someone casting their ballot and not.
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Chapter 3: How could the SAVE America Act affect voter registration?
big Republican state with reliable Republican majorities. There are a lot of folks there that rely on mail-in voting, and the Save America Act would require that photo ID be a part of the mail-in voting process as well, submitting a photocopy of your identification along with your ballot in the mail. The president has pushed for a near total ban on mail-in voting.
But that is not a provision that is actually included in the legislation in its current form and that the Senate will be voting on this week. And there's really not support in Congress for that kind of a ban either. There's also a constitutional question here. Elections are by law administered by the states. Can Congress legally impose federal authority over voting?
There are interesting constitutional questions that I think that this imposes. But if the act were to be enacted and signed by the president, it would be the law of the land. There are separations of powers questions that I think scholars would have to debate after it's enacted.
And certainly there could be some lawsuits that are brought by Democratic attorneys general in various states, as we've seen with a lot of Trump administration policies. Trump has been pushing hard for this legislation, even saying he wouldn't sign other bills save a DHS funding bill until it passes.
How much of this debate is about election security policy and how much of it is about political strategy ahead of the midterms?
The president has tried a number of ways and the White House more broadly has tried a number of ways to stave off what could be, you know, really a bloodbath in the midterm elections in November if Republicans lose the House and, you know, could derail the rest of the race.
The presidency, you know, first he tried redistricting, and that has not really gone the way that the White House and Republicans more broadly across the country had hoped. They haven't netted the seats that they wanted. I should say, even, you know, before redistricting, there was the one big, beautiful bill.
And Republicans have hoped that selling those wins from the reconciliation package could stave off those losses. And so I think that this is the next turn of the screw in terms of the White House's strategy to try and ensure that Republicans don't lose big in the midterms. And that was part of the threat that the president was making.
It's important to note, though, that bills can still become law. After 10 days, as long as Congress is in session, even if the president doesn't sign them, if he doesn't veto them. So I think, you know, talking to Republicans in Congress over the last week that there are many of them that didn't necessarily sign. take that threat super seriously.
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