Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Slamming The SAVE Act As “Jim Crow 2.0,” Calls It Dead On Arrival In The Senate

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor urging House Republicans to pass the bipartisan funding package without including the poisonous SAVE Act, which would federalize voter suppression and prolong a government shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Last week, the Senate did its job to fund 96% of the government, while splitting the DHS bill from the rest of the funding package, so we can rein in ICE and end the violence.

Now it's the House's turn to do its job, but a band of MAGA radicals want to hijack government funding to push an outlandishly toxic bill called the SAVE Act that would disenfranchise millions of American citizens.

Just a few hours ago, Donald Trump said he wants to nationalize elections around the country. That's what Trump said. You think he believes in democracy? He said, "we want to take over…the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting." Does Donald Trump need a copy of the Constitution? What he is saying is outlandishly illegal.

Once again, the President is talking no differently than a dictator who wants elections in America to be as legitimate as elections in countries like Venezuela. And make no mistake: one of the tools to nationalize elections is precisely the SAVE Act that some Republicans are pushing in the House.

I want to be very clear: the SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the Senate, and every single Senate Democrat would vote against any bill, any bill, that contains it. It is outrageous that House Republicans would even consider putting in the SAVE Act in legislation to fund the government. Democrats have been clear for months we will never in a million years consider this deeply restrictive and overreaching piece of legislation.

Republicans who are pushing for the SAVE Act are trying to kill the funding bill and prolong this shutdown. That's all they want-they want to kill the bill, kill the funding bill and have a long, prolonged shutdown. Speaker Johnson should tell these SAVE Act Republicans to stand down, or else this shutdown is on Republicans' shoulders.

Now as for the SAVE Act itself: it has nothing to do with protecting our elections and everything to do with federalizing voter suppression. The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0.

If the SAVE Act were to become law, online registration, registration by mail, and registration drives would become a thing of the past. If you're one of the tens of millions of US citizens who does not have access to your birth certificate, or if you're one of the 50% of Americans who don't have a passport, the SAVE Act could make it impossible for you to participate in elections. It would lead to massive purges that inevitably remove legitimate citizens, who have the right to vote, from voter rolls. And even married couples aren't spared by the SAVE Act. If you get married and you change your last name, you too would be at risk under the SAVE Act of getting booted off the voter rolls. This is just an outrageous piece of legislation, it's turning the clock back a hundred years. It comes out of some right-wing brain that thinks certain people really shouldn't vote, that some citizens are more valuable than others.

So let me be as clear as I can be: the SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the Senate. Hear that House right-wingers? It ain't happening. Anyone trying to push the SAVE Act as part of government funding is pining for a shutdown.

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