Protecting the Rights of American Citizens to Vote

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, this morning, all 216 of my GOP colleagues, along with just four out of 212 Democrats, passed the SAVE Act, which is a bill that mandates proof of citizenship for those registering to vote.

I think most people think that is already required and mandated. Guess what. Even though it is in the Constitution and Federal law mandates that only citizens can vote, there are States that have systems in place that allow noncitizens to register. Guess what. They vote.

To address this problem, the SAVE Act also requires States to establish a program to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls. Just last month, even though Iowa did what it could to correct this problem, 277 noncitizens were on the voter rolls and 35 of them voted. That may not sound consequential, but there are races that are decided by less than that.

The votes against the SAVE Act today were nothing more than to allow noncitizens to vote in the United States of America. I think that falls into the category of the 80/20 position. All I know, Mr. Speaker, is a vote against the SAVE Act today was a vote against American citizens' voting rights.

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