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While the SAVE America Act shows little movement in the Senate, certain proponents of the Act have renewed efforts at unusual legislative maneuvers to attach it to "must-pass" legislation.
Once again, we ask you to tell Congress to oppose the SAVE Act, no matter which legislative vehicle is used or how its text appears in any particular legislation that is moving.
The Save America Act, HR 7296 (Rep. Roy), S.1383 (Sen. Lee)(Sen. Scott)—is an expanded version of the original SAVE Act (H.R. 22). It looks to suppress eligible voters under the false pretense of preventing fraud. Multiple sources show the risk is rare: “just 0.04% of voter verification cases are returned as non-citizens” (Forbes).
The Senate declined to support this legislation twice this year already (CAP). Now, instead of accepting that outcome, ultra-conservatives in Congress are trying, once again, to force it into law (DO). Recent maneuvers being used to advance the SAVE Act include:
- A procedural mechanism known as "MIRVing" to officially merge the SAVE America Act with the FY2027 State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (H.R. 8595), which passed the House (The Hill)(Politico).
- Attaching the SAVE Act, in its entirety, to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2027 (NACO).
- Bundling parts of the Voter ID Act (H.R. 9368)—which emulates the strict in-person photo ID requirements of the SAVE Act—into a popular bill that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks (CLC).
- Leveraging Reconciliation: Without the 60 votes needed to beat a Senate filibuster, the Majority is looking to use this budget process and its simple 51-vote requirement (DD).
- Polluting funding: certain SAVE Act proponents are threatening to link the Act’s provisions to government funding bills needed by the close of September (SBT).
These bills are actually more of the same from the Majority on SAVE (Brennan Center). It remains a mechanism to impose unconstitutional restrictions that limit and restrict the right to vote. It would:
- Imposes burdensome and perhaps discriminatory proof-of-citizenship requirements to register (The Hill). Roughly 28.4 million American citizens lack such proof (BPC).
- Add strict photo ID mandates such that not a single state's current law satisfies it (RG).
- Criminalize routine actions by election officials and make it harder to administer elections (Oyer)(BPC).
Congress must reject these unconstitutional restrictions—no matter how the ideas are framed, or which legislative vehicle carries the text. As Unitarian Universalists, we have a moral and ethical objection; our faith calls us to side with justice against attempts to undermine access to the ballot and erode our multiracial democracy.
So we’re urging all of Congress to oppose the SAVE Act.
Background:
Extremist lawmakers have been championing the SAVE Act and corralling supportive votes on this anti-voter law designed to make it harder to register and vote. The U.S. State Department estimates that a whopping 46.9% of American Citizens did not have a valid passport in FY 2024, which implies about 150 million voters would have great difficulty proving their citizenship.
If passed, these measures would:
- Disenfranchise voters—especially people of color, and women, and low-income communities, and people with disabilities, and naturalized citizens;
- Impose criminal penalties on election workers—even when a voter is fully eligible but lacks specific documentation;
- Expand voter purges and increase the risk of errors, intimidation, and wrongful disenfranchisement;
- Force every state to rewrite its election laws overnight, with no transition period.
The legislative branch has a constitutional responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections and ensure all American citizens can freely, securely, and easily exercise their right to vote. The SAVE Act, these SAVE Act 2.0 bills, would undermine easy access, making our elections less free and less fair. In our opinion, the documentation burden amounts to a poll tax, proving that citizenship is not a free or easy process.
We must oppose the most recent efforts to maneuver the SAVE Act provisions into law.
Analysis and Coverage:
- SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans From Voting, Brennan Center
- Saving the Senate from the SAVE Act, National Review
- Five Things to Know About the SAVE Act, BPC
- House Bill Would Hurt American Voters, Brennan Center
- The SAVE Act would hurt rural voters, CAP
- SAVE Act Summary + its impact on Tribal Voters, Campaign Legal Center
- The SAVE Act’s Impact on Voter Registration, Brennan Center
- The Truth about False Claims of Noncitizen Voting, Voting Rights Lab
- Noncitizens Are Not Voting in Federal or State Elections — Here’s Why, Brennan Center
- What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act, Campaign Legal Center
- Thune: Senate GOP will discuss using ‘standing filibuster’ to help pass voting reform, The Hill
- Top Republicans throw cold water on ‘nationalizing’ elections (and SAVE intel), Roll Call
UU Grounding
As of General Assembly 2024, as Unitarian Universalists, we have agreed to “adopt new language on core religious values.” We agree love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. The values we share include all the following, which we hold as inseparable and deeply interconnected: Interdependence, Pluralism, Justice, Transformation, Generosity, and Equity. (Read more on the Article II revision process.)
With these agreed core religious values in mind, we also ground our call to preserve easy access to the vote in support of a healthy democracy in the following Unitarian Universalist Statements:
- Stop Voter Suppression and Partner for Voting Rights and a Multiracial Democracy, 2021 AIW
- Undoing Systemic White Supremacy: A Call to Prophetic Action, 2021 SOC
- Our Democracy Uncorrupted, 2019 SOC
- Oppose Citizens United—Support Free Speech for People, 2011 AIW
- Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society, 2007 SOC
- Voting Rights for Communities of Color, 2007 RR
The federal government should not get in the way of our ability to vote. While the SAVE America Act shows little movement in the Senate, certain proponents of the Act have renewed efforts at unusual legislative maneuvers to attach it to "must-pass" legislation. Ultra-conservatives in Congress are trying, once again, to force it into law.
Once again, we ask you to tell Congress to oppose the SAVE Act, no matter which legislative vehicle is used or how its text appears in any particular legislation that is moving.
Thank you for taking Action!
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Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ) has been the leader of a national UU advocacy movement in Washington, DC., and will continue our efforts, acting from:
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- Our belief that No Human Being is Illegal
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- Our stance that this democracy should be inclusive
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