Ranking Members Padilla, Morelle Demand Accountability for White House Misusing Taxpayer Funds to Lobby Congress for Anti-Voter SAVE Act

Padilla and Morelle urge GAO to address the White House's apparently illegal website dedicated to pressuring Americans to lobby their Senators to pass voter suppression bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Representative Joe Morelle (N.Y.-25), Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, urged the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the apparent illegality of the White House's use of taxpayer funds to create an official website dedicated to explicitly urging Americans to lobby their Senators in support of the SAVE America Act, an extreme voter suppression bill. With the Senate set to consider the anti-voter bill following its narrow, party-line passage in the House of Representatives, Padilla and Morelle asked GAO to determine whether the White House's direct taxpayer-funded call on citizens to influence lawmakers violates the Anti-Lobbying Act and other laws, which generally prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to support lobbying campaigns urging citizens to contact Members of Congress regarding pending legislation.

"This webpage appears to be a prima facie violation of restrictions on the use of appropriations for explicit appeals to the public to contact Members of Congress to support pending legislation. In this case, this apparently illegal appeal is in favor of a bill that is designed to stoke fears of voter fraud centered on a myth of pervasive voting by noncitizens, could disenfranchise millions of Americans, and would fundamentally alter election administration activities by nationalizing voter list maintenance and forcing the use of a flawed DHS database," wrote the lawmakers.

The public standalone webpage on the White House's official website, states, in all caps, "ACT NOW," and, after misleading the public with incorrect statements on the bill's purpose and impact, the webpage concludes with an explicit call to lobby Senators, reading: "URGE YOUR SENATOR TO PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT." Directly below, the webpage includes a data visualization tool to steer Americans toward their Senators' contact information. While federal officials may communicate with Congress and the public, GAO has found in previous appeals that specifically urging members of the public to contact Members of Congress in support of pending legislation violates the Anti-Lobbying Act's prohibition on the misuse of taxpayer funds.

Republicans' latest attempt to pass an updated version of the anti-voter SAVE Act threatens to disenfranchise millions of eligible American citizens in an election year by creating even more burdensome documentation requirements, among other voter suppression provisions. Despite investigations repeatedly showing that voter fraud is extremely rare, Republicans' SAVE America Act would make voting significantly harder for tens of millions of married women and rural, low-income, and minority voters, including disenfranchising up to 21 million citizens who can't readily access their passports and birth certificates. The SAVE America Act would also fuel attacks against hardworking election officials and illegally require all 50 states to hand over their unredacted voter rolls with sensitive personally identifiable information to the Trump Administration.

The Ranking Members urged GAO to consider the anti-voter actions and rhetoric from the White House leading up to their taxpayer-funded push for Americans to lobby their Senators on the SAVE America Act. Last week, President Trump said that if "Republicans" pass the SAVE America Act, "[w]e'll never lose a race" for 50 years. Trump has also issued an illegal anti-voter executive order attempting to enforce many of the same voting requirements and restrictions, much of which has already been blocked by federal courts. At the same time, some Republican Senators are making public calls to decimate the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act.

Additionally, Trump has called on Republicans "take over the voting" and "nationalize" elections, while threatening to use other illegal executive orders to restrict mail-in voting and enact other anti-democratic actions. Trump has argued that the SAVE America Act would allow him to ban mail-in voting, which is a proven safe and secure voting method that approximately 30% of Americans utilize.

"It is clear that the White House's legislative push is driven by the hope of partisan gain by changing election administration policy and that they are acting without regard to the law in their attempt to rewrite voting rules prior to the 2026 midterm elections," continued the lawmakers.

Senator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans' reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. Earlier this month, Padilla took to the Senate floor to condemn Congressional Republicans' attempts to pass the SAVE America Act. Last May, he stopped Senator Mike Lee's (R-Utah) attempt to pass the anti-voter SAVE Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. He also convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on Congressional Republicans' SAVE Act and Trump's illegal anti-voter executive order. As President Trump marked 100 disastrous days in office, Padilla led his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to speak out against the SAVE Act and the Trump Administration's attacks on election integrity. Last April, he warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of the SAVE Act, concerns that have been echoed by top election officials across the country. Padilla also led a letter sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts on voting rights in Native American communities of the SAVE Act and Trump's executive order. Most recently, he condemned Republicans' MEGA Act and SAVE America Act, which would impose even more severe restrictions than the SAVE Act.

Last month, Senator Padilla and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led 26 Senate colleagues in pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters' personally identifiable information. Padilla also spoke to the National Association of Secretaries of State Elections Committee, sounding the alarm on the Trump Administration's serious threats to election administration and security, while pushing states' chief election officials to protect the fundamental right to vote.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Acting Comptroller Brown:

We write concerning the apparent illegality of the use of official Executive Office of the President (EOP or "White House") funds to create a dedicated webpage on the official White House website to explicitly "urge" Americans to contact their Senators in support of the SAVE America Act (H.R. 7296). We urge the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a determination quickly as to whether the White House is violating the Anti-Lobbying Act through this use of taxpayer funds to influence of Congress in the consideration of this extreme anti-voter bill.

The White House official website is maintained by the Office of Digital Strategy in coordination with the Office of Communications and other EOP offices. Sometime in the past several weeks, the White House created and launched a public standalone webpage on the official White House website devoted primarily to promoting the lobbying of Congress in favor of the SAVE America Act. This bill could disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans by requiring onerous and burdensome proof of citizenship for voter registration and would force all 50 states to provide state voter list data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among other provisions.

Immediately upon scrolling on the landing page graphic, the relevant text states, in all-caps, "ACT NOW" and, after several inaccurate bullet points that grossly mislead the public about the content of the bill, the short page concludes with "URGE YOUR SENATOR TO PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT" (emphasis in original). Below that explicit call to lobby Senators, the webpage includes an online data visualization tool with the heading "Click or Search the Map Below to Contact Your Senators." When a visitor clicks on a state, an information box appears with phone numbers and email addresses for two Senators for each state on the map.

This webpage appears to be a prima facie violation of restrictions on the use of appropriations for explicit appeals to the public to contact Members of Congress to support pending legislation. In this case, this apparently illegal appeal is in favor of a bill that is designed to stoke fears of voter fraud centered on a myth of pervasive voting by noncitizens, could disenfranchise millions of Americans, and would fundamentally alter election administration activities by nationalizing voter list maintenance and forcing the use of a flawed DHS database. The President has also stated that he believes this legislation would enable him to ban mail-in voting as well, a safe and secure voting method used by nearly 30% of American voters in 2024.

The context of the White House's taxpayer-funded call for the public to lobby Congress is also important for GAO to consider. On February 19, 2026, President Trump said that if "Republicans" pass the SAVE America Act, "[w]e'll never lose a race. For 50 years, we won't lose a race." The President has also issued an Executive Order that attempted to impose some of these requirements which has been enjoined in federal court, stated that Republicans should "takeover" election administration in certain states, and threatened additional illegal Executive Orders to mandate elements of this bill and other anti-voter policies if the Senate fails to send the bill to his desk. It is clear that the White House's legislative push is driven by the hope of partisan gain by changing election administration policy and that they are acting without regard to the law in their attempt to rewrite voting rules prior to the 2026 midterm elections.

This request is also timely. The President and his allies are calling for this legislation to be considered in the Senate very soon in the upcoming work period. This legislation has already passed the House of Representatives on an extremely narrow, overwhelmingly party-line vote, and the President and some Senators are publicly calling for even changing Senate rules to ensure passage of this legislation.

The Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the Committee on House Administration have jurisdiction over the legislation at issue. GAO's responsibilities with regards to the oversight of appropriations laws includes providing opinions to Members and Committees of Congress concerning the uses of funds, including the prohibition on lobbying with appropriated money (18 U.S. C. § 1913). Over the years, GAO has addressed similar issues arising within various federal agencies and has consistently stated that clear appeals to the public to contact Members of Congress about pending legislation are the types of public communications that are prohibited. We look forward to a response as soon as possible in this case given the potential timing of the legislation pending before the Senate.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

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