'This Bill Is About Disenfranchising Americans': Joe Morelle Condemns GOP's SAVE Act

4/10/2025

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) tore into House Republicans over HR 22, the SAVE Act.

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00:00Together with President Trump's recent voting restrictive executive order, the SAVE Act

00:05would cripple American elections.

00:08It would end voter registration in the United States as we know it.

00:12The SAVE Act would end mail-in registration.

00:15You heard that right.

00:16All those states and all those people who register by mail, not vote by mail, registration

00:21by mail, it would end that.

00:23American citizens would have to appear in person at an election office, bring with them

00:27various documents and forms to register to vote.

00:31Think about it.

00:32Just to exercise your fundamental inalienable rights as a citizen of this country, Republicans

00:38would force Americans into a paperwork nightmare, burying voter registration or a mountain of

00:43bureaucracy and red tape.

00:46So what exactly would the SAVE Act do?

00:49It would create enormous burdens for every American citizen who seeks to register to vote.

00:54Let's dig into the details.

00:55As my Republican colleague and friend admitted at the Rules Committee, under the SAVE Act,

01:00most Americans would be unable to register to vote using their real ID.

01:04Further, under the SAVE Act, almost 70 million American women will be unable to register to

01:09vote using their birth certificate simply because they changed their name upon marriage.

01:15The bill would disenfranchise survivors of domestic abuse who have changed their names for safety

01:19purposes, which is truly shocking.

01:21And the SAVE Act will also have a steep financial cost to American citizens.

01:26Because yes, the SAVE Act does allow Americans to use their passports to register to vote.

01:32But half of all Americans do not have a passport, and a passport costs $130 plus additional fees.

01:40So the SAVE Act will cost American voters who do not have passports and choose to use them billions of dollars to secure them.

01:46Americans are facing rising costs exacerbated by the recent Trump tariffs.

01:52Economists are warning about a looming Trump recession.

01:55But let's face it, the SAVE Act would force U.S. citizens to spend billions of dollars to register to vote.

02:01This includes rural voters, many of whom now register to vote online by mail,

02:06who will be forced to drive hours and cross hundreds of miles to present documentary proof.

02:11This includes senior citizens, who are particularly likely to lack documentary proof of citizenship,

02:17including passports, copies of their birth certificates, or other documents.

02:21And what about the men and women in uniform who serve our country all over the world?

02:25Can a member of our military use their military ID?

02:28Surely military IDs should be enough to register to vote, not according to the SAVE Act.

02:34Service members will need to bring their military ID and a copy of their service record showing their place of birth

02:40within the United States, but many service members were born abroad, say to military parents overseas.

02:46Many are naturalized citizens.

02:48Those service members will be blocked from using their military ID to register to vote.

02:53And remember the SAVE Act's requirement that Americans show their documentation in person at an election office.

02:59It will have drastic consequences.

03:01The SAVE Act will prevent members of our armed forces from registering to vote while deployed overseas.

03:08But the SAVE Act is not actually meant to prevent non-citizens from voting.

03:13The SAVE Act is really about silencing Americans.

03:16This bill is about disenfranchising Americans, not non-citizens, Americans, U.S. citizens.

03:23Americans like James Wilson, an Arizona voter who I met with last week, who was meant to join us in the gallery,

03:29who flew all the way to Washington D.C. last week to watch Congress debate the SAVE Act.

03:34He was forced to fly home after the speaker canceled three days of legislative work.

03:38Mr. Wilson is an American citizen, born in Japan to a military father during the Vietnam War.

03:44Mr. Wilson is also a veteran.

03:46He proudly served our nation overseas, including in Korea and Germany.

03:51Like millions of Americans, Mr. Wilson does not have a passport because he doesn't need a passport.

03:57Like millions of Americans, Mr. Wilson does not have access to his birth certificate.

04:02When Arizona introduced a restrictive voter registration law, a law just like the SAVE Act,

04:07Mr. Wilson's right to vote was imperiled.

04:10Mr. Wilson did not have any of the documents required by the Arizona law, required by the SAVE Act to prove his citizenship.

04:18But for a last-minute emergency court order, Mr. Wilson, an American citizen, a veteran, and a patriot,

04:25would not have been able to vote this past election.

04:28If the SAVE Act becomes law, Americans nationwide will face the same bureaucratic nightmare that Mr. Wilson faced in Arizona.

04:35The SAVE Act will force Americans, like Mr. Wilson, to pay billions of dollars to exercise their invaluable right to vote.

04:42House Republicans want to increase the burdens and amplify the costs in time, in money, and in effort for American citizens to vote.

04:50House Democrats do not.

04:52The SAVE Act would cost American citizens something deeply important, something essential to the soul of this nation,

04:58the right to freely and fairly participate in our elections.

05:02I strongly urge defeat of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

05:06The gentleman preserves his time.

05:08Gentlemen-

05:09The gentleman-

05:13The gentleman-

05:15The gentleman-

'This Bill Is About Disenfranchising Americans': Joe Morelle Condemns GOP's SAVE Act

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