The SAVE Act passed the House of Representatives 220–208 two days after the hearing. It requires people to register to vote or update their registration information to present proof of citizenship.
The bill now moves on to the Senate.
Trump’s executive order called out what he described as America’s continued failure to “enforce basic and necessary protections” to ensure free and fair elections.
The order contends that states have failed to adequately vet voters’ citizenship and that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden failed to devote sufficient resources to the enforcement of the existing statutes.
The order also alleges that the prior administration actively prevented states from removing aliens from their voter lists.
“It is the policy of my administration to enforce federal law and to protect the integrity of our election process,” Trump said in the order.
Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a witness at the hearing, told the committee that Trump’s executive order was “a good first step” and that states needed more access to data to determine a person’s immigration status.
“That lawsuit is ongoing, but I hope that, with the new administration, states will soon be able to proactively verify the citizenship status of every registered voter on their rolls,” he said.
Trump’s order requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to engage in “information-sharing agreements” with the states to provide the Justice Department with details on all suspected violations of federal and state election laws.
Witness Wes Allen, the Republican secretary of state of Alabama, said: “My efforts to gain access to noncitizen data held by the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) were repeatedly denied by the previous administration.”
Witness Phil McGrane, the Republican secretary of state of Idaho, testified: “I am hopeful that today’s hearing can be a conversation about how Congress can partner with my peers and me to strengthen voting across the United States.
“There is a lot of discussion— through the SAVE Act, President Trump’s recent Executive Order, and elsewhere—about validating voter citizenship using DHS’s SAVE system.”
McGrane was referring to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is an online service administered by the USCIS to assist federal, state, and local officials in verifying the immigration status of people seeking government benefits.
“But the reality is that the SAVE system is not a database. It is a patchwork of records from various immigration systems never designed for election integrity work,” McGrane said.
According to McGrane, 34 non-citizens were removed from Idaho voter rolls before the 2024 general election. He implored Congress to provide adequate funding to the USCIS.
The citizenship of individuals attempting to enroll for public assistance must be assessed before they are provided with a federal voter registration form, according to Trump’s order.
The order mandates Bondi to coordinate with state attorneys general in the investigation and prosecution of aliens unlawfully registering to vote or casting votes.
Under the order, states that are unwilling to share information or refuse to cooperate in investigations and prosecutions will receive increased scrutiny and potentially lose federal grants and other federal funds connected with law enforcement.
Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, a witness at the hearing, said that Trump’s order and the SAVE Act “threaten to disrupt” the “well-established” election systems in her state and that they are “costly, unnecessary, and restrictive.”
Thomas testified that the federal mandates would require each of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities to “crosscheck and verify voter registration information against federal databases—another requirement our towns and cities do not have the staffing or finances to do.”
“The software Connecticut uses for its voter files lacks the fields needed to input citizenship data because non-citizens are already prohibited from registering,” Thomas said.
Thomas also said that “in-person registration discriminates against voters with disabilities who may not have reliable transportation to reach municipal offices during limited hours.”
“We urge policymakers to respect state sovereignty and protect the rights of all voters, which for Connecticut neither the SAVE Act nor presidential order does,” she said.
At the hearing, ranking member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) called Trump’s executive order “unlawful” and said it would “cripple and undermine” federal agencies and encourage “chaos and uncertainty.”
Enforce Existing Laws, Penalties
Trump’s executive order demands that the Justice Department enforce federal laws already on the books banning noncitizens from registering to vote, such as U.S. Code 1015(f).The statute states in part: “Whoever knowingly makes any false statement or claim that he is a citizen of the United States in order to register to vote or vote in any federal, state, or local election … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Trump ordered the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) administrator to coordinate with the DHS to do a side-by-side comparison of each state’s voter registration list with federal immigration databases to ensure consistency with federal law.
DHS and DOGE are also ordered to review each state’s voter list maintenance activities to ensure compliance with federal requirements.
Voting Machine Certification
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC), in its role as overseer of the certification of election equipment, has been ordered by Trump to create guidelines ensuring that voting systems do not use “a ballot in which a vote is contained within a barcode or quick response code in the vote counting process … and should provide a voter-verifiable paper record.”The order gives the EAC 180 days to rescind all previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards and to recertify voting systems under the new standards established by the order.
Following an audit of Help America Vote Act fund expenditures, the EAC must report to the Department of Justice any discrepancies or issues with an audited state’s certification of compliance.
One-Day Voting
At a time when early in-person voting is gaining popularity and absentee ballots are commonly received after election day, Trump’s executive order demands that 2 U.S. Code 7 and 3 U.S. Code 1—laws that establish a uniform election day across the nation for federal elections—be enforced.“It is the policy of my administration to enforce those statutes and require that votes be cast and received by the election date established by law,” wrote Trump in the order.
Foreign Money
Current federal law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to or making expenditures in federal, state, and local elections.“Foreign nationals and non-governmental organizations have taken advantage of loopholes in the law’s interpretation, spending millions of dollars through conduit contributions and ballot-initiative expenditures,” according to the executive order.
Trump mandates Bondi, in consultation with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, to prioritize enforcement of all laws that prevent foreign nationals from contributing to American elections.
