Republicans are urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to adopt a landmark bill that would require states to verify proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.
They say the bill is crucial to ensuring the integrity of November’s election, but so far it has stalled in the Senate.
Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, co-chair of the House Caucus for Election Integrity, spoke to Fox News Digital about the issue on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She described election integrity as a “top priority” for the 2024 election cycle, noting that only five Democrats voted in favor of the Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which seeks to require states to obtain proof of citizenship (in person) when registering to vote and to require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls.
“Everyone should be talking about the SAVE Act and the fact that 198 Democrats voted in favor of allowing foreign nationals to vote in our elections,” Tenney said. “Nothing is more disruptive to our elections and our democratic process than allowing people who have the benefits of citizenship to vote when they haven’t created citizenship and given up the responsibilities of citizenship. I think this is really important: one citizen, one vote.”
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has so far refused to call for a vote on the Protect American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“Make sure that no one’s vote is diluted and that the right to vote is sacred. The deepest expression of our self-governance is the sacred right to vote,” she said.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) also criticized Governor Schumer for not calling for a vote on the bill in the Senate, despite the fact that under the Biden administration, there have been more than 10 million encounters with people illegally crossing the US border and an estimated 2 million “fugitives” who have evaded Border Patrol and fled into the US.
“We’ve been calling on Chuck Schumer to introduce a Republican bill into the 118th Congress. Let’s go back to last April when we passed H.R. 2, the Border Security Act. If this bill had passed, we would have secured our border. This was the border security bill. And if this bill had passed, we probably could have avoided over 10 million people coming into this country illegally, over 2 million illegals that are in this country right now, and millions more who are illegally here,” said D’Esposito, who sits on the House Steering Committee, which oversees the Federal Election Commission and introduced the SAVE Act to Congress and passed it.
“It’s sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk collecting dust,” D’Esposito said. “The SAVE Act says it all. And if there’s anyone out there who lies in bed at night wondering, as I often do, ‘Why do Democrats continue to allow so many people into the U.S. illegally?’ the fact that nearly 200 people voted against the SAVE Act, the fact that Chuck Schumer has not yet taken it up in the Senate and likely will not, are indicators of exactly why the border is wide open.”
Democrats are scrambling after President Biden made the shock announcement on Sunday that he would not run for a second term and would endorse Vice President Harris.
The election integrity bill was put on the back burner as Harris hit the campaign trail for the first time since entering the race and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to parliament last week.
“One of our senators, Senator Chuck Schumer, should take up this bill immediately,” Tenney told Fox News Digital. “If he truly cares about democracy, if he truly cares about the rule of law, if he truly cares about the citizens that we represent in New York state and across this country, he should tell every Democrat in the Senate to vote for the SAVE Act.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York is co-chair of the House Caucus for Election Integrity. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Schumer called on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was convicted in a federal corruption case, to resign after initially refraining from resigning when the allegations were made. Menendez responded on Tuesday, announcing his intention to resign from the Senate after Aug. 20. Tenney suggested the shifting balance of power could mean the SAVE Act could end up coming to a vote after all.
“This tilts the balance of power in the Senate and Senator Chuck Schumer may realize that several Democrats will not want to vote against the SAVE Act,” Tenney said.
Biden had promised to veto the bill if it passed. Tenney argued that a veto would be a “death knell” for Democrats’ elections. “If you undermine the people of this great country by saying, as Democrats always charge, that their vote doesn’t matter in a democracy, then you undermine our political system,” Tenney said.
Democrats plan to confirm their nominees in a virtual roll call weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to avoid legal disputes.
President Biden signed Executive Order 14019 in 2021, which the White House called “advancing voting access,” but Republicans argue the order broadly interprets the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) and essentially recruits federal agencies to become voter registration agencies.
“This executive order directs federal agencies to act as ballot collection sites,” Tenney said. “I believe this is a violation of the Hatch Act and undermines our elections.”
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito of New York attends the Fiserv Forum during the Republican National Convention, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (Republican) has raised the alarm about President Biden’s executive order requiring state agencies that receive federal funding to send voter registration information to anyone who comes into contact with those agencies without verifying citizenship.
Allen told Fox News Digital at the convention that, in essence, the executive order “really weaponizes and federalizes an entire federal agency into a voter registration agency.”
“I don’t believe the federal government has a role to leave to the states when it comes to voter registration,” he said. “The management of voter files is the foundation of election integrity.”
“We’ve reached out to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and asked them to send us a list of legal non-citizens on file so we can check it against our voter list and make sure nobody’s missing,” he said. “But unfortunately, they’ve denied us access to that data. But we’ll keep trying. Hopefully, there’s an opening for us to get that data. And it’s data funded by you, the taxpayer, and me, the taxpayer. Everybody’s funding that list. And it makes sense that only American citizens should vote in our American elections.”
Allen said he had the opportunity to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson during the convention to discuss the SAVE Act.
“I cannot comprehend how 198 Democrats would vote against giving us, the secretary of state across the country, the means to verify citizenship. I cannot comprehend it. But I told Speaker Johnson to keep pushing. That’s why we need to get Trump back in the White House. That’s why we need Republican majorities in the House and the Senate,” Allen said.
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As for Schumer, Allen urged the Senate majority leader to reconsider bringing the bill to a vote..
““Only American citizens should be able to vote in elections,” Allen said. “I want our secretaries of state across the country to have the tools to verify citizenship, to be able to do that and to make sure that voter records are kept.”
