WASHINGTON — Following House passage of the SAVE America Act, Speaker Johnson hosted a press conference alongside House Republican Leadership, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, Congressman Chip Roy, and election integrity advocates from around the country.
Speaker Johnson highlighted that all but one House Democrat voted against protecting the integrity of American elections and encouraged Senate Democrats to vote for this commonsense legislation supported by more than 80% of the American people.
“Proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote; everyone in the country understands the necessity of that and understands how simple it is and how important it is,” Speaker Johnson said.“And the only people that oppose it are people who want to cheat our system, who want to participate in our elections illegally unlawfully.”
Watch Speaker Johnson’s press conference remarks here.
Below are Speaker Johnson’s remarks as delivered:
Good evening, everybody. This was a very important night on the House Floor. House Republicans tonight stood with the overwhelming majority of Americans who demand secure elections. Standing with me are some of the champions of this cause in the House and some of the leaders outside our Chamber who’ve been working on this issue to ensure this integrity for quite some time. And this is a big achievement tonight by voting for the SAVE America Act.
House Republicans did exactly what the American people sent us here to do. It’s promises made, promises kept. Ensuring the integrity of elections is an essential issue. It’s essential to maintaining our constitutional republic. And everybody in this country seems to understand and agree to that. This is about a 90/10 issue in the polling because all that we’ve done tonight in this simple piece of legislation is apply common sense.
All this SAVE America Act does is it enhances the SAVE act, which you’ve already passed twice before, which says that you have to have proof of citizenship before you register to vote in federal elections. The law already provides for that, but we need to ensure that it’s enforced. And the second part of it, what we added tonight and what is part of the SAVE America Act is the second piece, the very commonsense requirement that you have a photo ID if you’re going to vote. So that’s it, that’s what the bill does. Proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote. Everyone in the country understands the necessity of that, understands how simple it is and how important it is. And the only people that oppose it are people who want to cheat our system, who want to participate in our elections illegally unlawfully.
And that’s not fair to the American people and the citizens of this country. And so, we had only one House Democrat participate with us tonight. This has become a bitter partisan fight in its madness to us. We can’t quite understand what the rationale is for opposing a free and fair election, but they’re going to have to explain this to the people, and they’re going to have a hard time doing that. Now, this bill, having passed the House, will now go to the Senate, and we are encouraging all of our Senate Republican colleagues who believe in this just as we do, to try to get this thing through the system to pass it there. And we’re hoping that some Democrats in the Senate will come to their senses and do the right thing for the people. Otherwise, they got a lot of explaining to do, as we say down in the South.
This is something that is overdue. It’s something that’s common sense. It’s something that comports with what the American people want. And there’s really just one question that would linger over all this. Now, will Senate Democrats continue to cater to their extreme left-wing base or are they going to finally join the overwhelming majority of Americans on this commonsense reform?
But I’ll tell you this, once again, Republicans have demonstrated that we are the party of common sense. We are the party that’s delivering exactly what the American people sent us here to do. And we will continue that.
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