Biden-Harris administration 'strongly opposes' SAVE Act, attaching it to funding bill

The Biden-Harris administration has announced that it "strongly opposes" the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. This comes as House Republicans tried to attach the bill to a spending package that would fund the government until March 2025. The act would simply make proof of citizenship a requirement to vote.

A White House statement on the SAVE Act reads: "The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines." However, that does not mean that voter registration requires proof of citizenship.



The White House claimed that the measure would be unnecessary and that states "already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls."

Additionally on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the Republican proposal "is not a solution" to funding for Fiscal Year 2025, adding that it contains a "partisan poison bill." Jean-Pierre appeared to make it seem that Democrats were those who are willing to work on a bipartisan basis and said that Republicans should work with Democrats to pass a “short-term CR” or continuing resolution.

In contrast to the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrats' opposition, a poll from McLaughlin & Associates earlier this year notes that over 86 percent of Americans agree with the statement "proof of United States citizenship should be required to register to vote in American elections."

The White House noted in its written statement that Biden "will continue fighting to protect Americans’ sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections." The Biden-Harris administration added that "if House Republicans really want to do something about securing our border and fixing our broken immigration system, they should vote on the border deal that the President negotiated with a bipartisan group of Senators."

The border bill that was negotiated earlier this year was reported to have allowed in at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants on an annual basis, and the bill, if passed in Congress and signed by the president, would have codified this into law.