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Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise in strong opposition to the so- called SAVE America Act. What it should be called is the ``Save Trump Act.'' This bill is not about protecting elections; it is about making it harder for eligible Americans to vote, and Republicans know it.

Right now, my Republican colleagues are trying to hide the ball. They talk about voter ID at the polls as if that is all this bill requires. But that is not the case. That is not the truth. The truth is that this bill requires every American--every American, millions of Americans--to provide documentary proof of citizenship, like passports or birth certificates, in person, just to register to vote, OK?

Right now, we have a situation where millions of Americans are voting, but suddenly that is not going to be OK. This bill will require every American to reregister, register, and show proof of citizenship.

So Republicans are hoping that Americans won't know the difference between having to show a photo ID when voting and the requirement to prove citizenship in order to even register to vote.

Let me be clear. This bill is not just about showing a picture ID when voting; this bill is about having to prove citizenship in person before you can even register to vote.

The SAVE Act will make it harder, more expensive, and certainly less convenient to register to vote. Republicans know this. This is the part that the Republicans are not talking about as they continue to sell the SAVE Act as a voter ID bill. It is the part that Republicans are hoping people will not notice or understand until it is too late, until they are told: Wait a minute. You can't even go to the polls or you can't even vote unless, ahead of time, you register by proving your citizenship.

So once Americans do understand what this bill does, it becomes clear: This bill is not about securing our elections; it is about controlling which Americans get to participate in them through imposing onerous voter registration requirements.

Let's be very clear about something else. Noncitizen voting in Federal elections is already illegal. It is a Federal crime. If a noncitizen illegally votes in a Federal election, they could be prosecuted and even sentenced up to 5 years in prison. Who is going to commit this kind of fraud knowing that they could be imprisoned for 5 years? And as my colleague just mentioned, my colleague from Illinois, there have been so few of these kinds of so-called fraud in the years that millions and millions of people have been voting.

So Republicans would like the American people to believe that noncitizens are voting in our elections in the thousands, and the truth is that noncitizen voting is extremely rare, to be practically nonexistent.

The Cato Institute found that voting by noncitizens in the United States is virtually nonexistent. The Heritage Foundation found fewer than 70 instances of it over a 40-year period. Think about it. Millions of people vote every year, and the Heritage Foundation found only 70 instances in over 40 years of people voting. That amounts to one ten- thousandths of the over 1 billion votes cast during that same period. And we all know the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation are not liberal think tanks.

In continuing their claims of mass voter fraud necessitating this bill, Republicans are perpetuating a lie about something that is practically nonexistent and already illegal.

So why are Republicans so obsessed with passing this bill? Why is Donald Trump calling it ``one of the most important and consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress''? Because he and the Republicans know that their agenda--gutting Medicaid, slashing SNAP, taxing us through illegal tariffs, and dragging us into an illegal war--is deeply unpopular with the American people. It is so unpopular that people will be motivated--that is the fear the Republicans have-- that people will be motivated to vote against this agenda and vote for Democrats. Republicans know that when more people vote, they lose. So instead of changing their policies and actually listening to what the American people really need, which are things like lowering housing costs and food costs, the Republicans want to change who gets to vote. They want to cherry-pick who gets to participate in our democracy.

In every State except North Dakota, people have to register to vote before voting. Many States, including Hawaii, have made voter registration as simple as possible to encourage more voter participation. But not under this bill. Under this bill, Americans would have to prove their citizenship by producing documents like a passport or birth certificate in person in order to register to vote.

Imagine you are living in a rural community somewhere and you have to go somewhere in person to register to vote. Republicans know that this is not a simple requirement that they want to impose on people who would want to register to vote.

More than 140 million Americans--nearly half of American citizens--do not have a passport, and my colleague just said that there are more White Americans who have passports than there are Black Americans. So that will already give you an idea of who the Republicans are hoping to discourage from even registering to vote.

In addition, more than 21 million eligible voters do not have ready access to documents proving their citizenship. In other words, for tens of millions of Americans, producing these documents is not a simple hurdle; it is a huge barrier. It is a barrier for young people trying to register for the first time, for seniors who no longer have easy access to documents, for working families who can't afford the time or cost of navigating more government paperwork just to register to vote.

A new passport costs over $150. If this sounds like a poll tax, a price to exercise our constitutional right to vote, that is because it is. It is a financial burden on Americans at a time when millions are struggling just to put food on the table and to pay rent, to put a roof over their heads--yet another reminder of how out of touch this regime is with the lives of average, everyday Americans.

Unsurprisingly, the burdens that this bill creates would fall disproportionately on communities who have historically had to fight for their right to vote, including women.

An estimated 69 million women do not have a birth certificate that matches their current legal name, their married name, including over 300,000 women in Hawaii alone.

In fact, there was a time in Hawaii and probably other States where if you got married, you could not keep your name. You had to take your husband's name or your spouse's name. Hawaii got rid of that, but I just want to mention there was a time when there were lots of limitations on what women could do.

So 300,000 women in my State and millions more across the country would face new barriers to voting. Talk about heading people off at the pass.

If women can be stopped or dissuaded from registering to vote, frankly, that is OK by Republicans. Republicans know full well the consequences that this bill would have for women across our country in red and blue States alike.

While women will suffer under this bill, so too will many other communities, including our servicemembers and their families.

Don't take my word for it. Let me share with you a letter I received from a military spouse in Hawaii. She writes--and I am going to quote her letter because she notes some very important realities for our servicemembers.

She wrote:

The SAVE Act would have disastrous impacts on military families like mine. Most active-duty families move every two or three years. In addition to these moves' disruption of our established support networks, changes in our children's education and social lives, and limits on our employment and career paths, these moves also impact our ability to vote.

We have a 27-percent voter participation deficit compared to civilian voters, partly due to how many logistical challenges we already face. If passed, this bill would mean that military servicemembers and their families could functionally no longer register to vote from a far-away duty station.

Additionally, if an eligible voter was born overseas like many in our community--if an eligible voter has changed their first or last name since birth, like many spouses do when they get married--or if an eligible voter simply doesn't have access to their documents because they're in the middle of a military move--this bill could deny them the ability to register [to vote].

The SAVE America Act would cut families like mine out of the ability to participate in our own democracy, the very democracy we have committed to protect.

There are more than 2 million people serving in our armed services, more than 40,000 of whom live in Hawaii. Our servicemembers risk their lives for our country, but this bill will make it harder for them to participate in the very democracy they fight to defend.

And let's not pretend this bill exists in isolation or in a vacuum. Under this regime, we have seen a relentless campaign to undermine trust in our elections and to enact new restrictions on voting.

Under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice has sued 29 States and the District of Columbia, demanding these jurisdictions hand over their voter rolls and all the personal data contained in these voter rolls.

Now, what are Trump and the person he considers his lawyer, Pam Bondi, going to do with all of this information? Interfering with our elections comes to mind. And it was just weeks ago that now outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Noem refused to rule out stationing ICE agents outside polling places this fall.

If that isn't intimidation or voter interference, I don't know what is.

Taken together--making it harder to register to vote, suing States to turn over voter rolls, refusing to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act, and continued false allegations of voter fraud--this regime is obsessed with controlling the outcome of our elections and obsessed with this bill.

Republicans know they can't win over voters with their policies so they are trying to limit who can vote. We have seen this before, from poll taxes to literacy tests. Southern States spent decades making it as hard as possible for Black Americans and other communities of color to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

We have come a long way since the days of Jim Crow, but this bill is a chilling reminder that the battles we thought we had won don't stay won. Eternal vigilance is required of all of us.

The SAVE Act is not some benign piece of legislation. That is why we Senate Democrats are here speaking up and fighting back. We know what is at stake, and we refuse to stand by while Republicans undermine our democracy and our sacred right to vote under the false pretense of security.

Here is the truth: Republicans don't give a rip about saving America. All they care about is saving Trump's ass, deluding themselves into believing everything Trump says.

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