Sen. Mike Lee: We’re Going To Make Senators Who Want TO Filibuster “SAVE Act” Actually Speak Until They Are No Longer Able
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee spoke with FNC’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” about the procedures the Senate will go through next week to pass the “SAVE Act” requiring voter ID and citizenship verification to register to vote, after they resolve the DHS funding issue related to a dispute over ICE policy.
SEN. MIKE LEE: We absolutely need the SAVE America Act; 85 to 90 percent of Americans agree that people have to establish that they’re citizens to vote in U.S. elections, and they should have to show up on polling day with a photo I.D. I also believe that, with a bill this popular, we really owe it to the American people when we consider it to make any senators wishing to filibuster to actually speak. They shouldn’t be able to filibuster while they’re napping. They shouldn’t be able to filibuster while they’re at the Munich Security Conference. A filibuster in this circumstance should require them to go to the Senate floor, seek recognition, and start speaking until they are no longer able. That’s how we ought to get this thing passed, and I think we need to. As far as the timing of it, that’s going to be complicated a little bit by the fact that Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security and then left for the Munich Security Conference. We will have to deal with that, I suspect, before we turn to the SAVE America Act, but that’s why we have got to get it done fast. MARIA BARTIROMO: So are you saying that you will be unable to do a talking filibuster this week because the Department of Homeland Security is still shut down? LEE: Yes, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which the Senate proceeds to a measure, intending and hoping, as I hope it will, to enforce the talking filibuster, meaning to require any senator wishing to filibuster to speak. That could take some time. And I think there are reasons why we will have to get the Department of Homeland Security funded before we can begin that effort. That said, I will continue to make the case to my colleagues and to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, whose support I’m very grateful to have as a co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act, to move this forward. BARTIROMO: Well, the Democrat — there are certain Democrats who also support showing I.D. to vote. I want to ask you about that. What is the appropriate I.D. to prove citizenship? LEE: All right, so for proving citizenship under the SAVE America Act, you can do it obviously with any of the traditional forms that you use whenever you’re starting a new job with a new employer. Obviously, a birth certificate, Social Security card can help with this. If you have got a U.S. passport, that will suffice. But the SAVE America Act actually gives you more options. It provides more flexibility even than the I-9 form that you have to fill out every time you start a new job. It allows you to go through a process of attestation, signing a sworn affidavit indicating the circumstances under which your citizenship was obtained. And then the state in which you apply to register to vote can follow up on those things. But the point there is that, even if you are someone who has lost your documentation, there are still ways of making sure that you can register to vote. This is not too hard to comply with. But people should have to provide some sort of support for the fact that they are U.S. citizens before they’re allowed to register to vote in a federal election.
