Sen. John Kennedy Pushes to Pass SAVE America Act Through Reconciliation
Might this be the solution? If a free, national Voter ID and subsidies for low income people to obtain their birth certificates was included, it would satisfy most of the Democrat's talking points while also making it a budget item.
Tommy Flynn
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is urging Republican leadership to advance the SAVE America Act via the budget reconciliation process, a procedural move that would allow the election security bill to pass the Senate with a simple 50-vote majority plus the vice president’s tiebreaker.
Kennedy, a co-sponsor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, made the case on the Senate floor and in recent interviews, stating the chamber’s slow pace and the looming Democratic filibuster make reconciliation the only realistic path forward.
“I think we are, Mr. President—I know you are—we need to try to pass this legislation through reconciliation,” Kennedy said. He added that he has been pressing colleagues “like they stole Thanksgiving and Christmas” to get it done.
The SAVE America Act, which passed the House earlier this year, requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship (such as a passport or birth certificate) when registering to vote in federal elections and mandates photo identification at the polls beginning in 2027. It also includes provisions tightening mail-in ballot rules.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has already opened debate on the standalone bill, but it faces a certain Democratic filibuster requiring 60 votes to advance. Reconciliation, used successfully by both parties for major fiscal legislation, bypasses that threshold if the bill meets strict budgetary rules.
Kennedy emphasized the urgency: “The Senate is notoriously slow. Sometimes it takes us months to get nothing done. The SAVE Act is a priority.”
Democrats have strongly opposed the legislation, calling it voter suppression without evidence of widespread non-citizen voting. Republicans counter that even isolated cases undermine public trust and that the bill closes loopholes exploited in past elections.
President Donald Trump has made the SAVE Act a top priority, repeatedly calling it essential to “guarantee the midterms.” No final decision has been made on using reconciliation, but Kennedy’s public push has intensified discussions within the GOP caucus ahead of the 2026 midterms.