Fetterman Won’t Back SAVE Act Over Mail-In Vote Restrictions

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he will not vote for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in its current form.

He sided with his party on final passage while again pushing back on other Democrats’ rhetoric that the bill is a modern form of racial voter suppression. Fetterman frequently bucks his party, including most recently on Department of Homeland Security funding.

Fetterman, who has repeatedly said he supports requiring photo ID to vote, drew the line at the bill’s mail-in voting provisions during an appearance on CBS News’s “The Takeout with Major Garrett” on March 11.

“I don’t support, in its current state, to vote SAVE America,” he said. “The president is constantly critical on mail-in voting, and that’s ridiculous. It’s safe.”

The SAVE America Act, which passed the House in February on a 218–213 vote, with one Democrat in favor, would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot, including by mail.

President Donald Trump has since called on Congress to attach additional provisions further restricting mail-in voting to military service members and a narrow set of exceptions. Additionally, the president has said the measure must include provisions against “men in women’s sports” and “transgender mutilation surgery for children.”

Fetterman said he has a personal frame of reference on the issue, noting his time as lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2019 when Republicans there overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill that expanded mail-in voting under Act 77 and also ended straight-ticket voting. While many Democrats in both chambers opposed the measure, most Republicans in the state House and all Republicans in the state Senate supported it.

“And then immediately, [Trump] decided that it’s wrong,” Fetterman said. “And then they had to walk back and explain why, unanimously, every single Republican voted for that in 2019.”

He said that mail-in voting has functioned effectively in Republican-led states, naming Ohio and Florida as examples.

On voter ID more broadly, Fetterman acknowledged wide public support and said he would consider backing a more narrowly drawn bill. He cited a Pew Research Center survey from August 2025 showing that 83 percent of Americans support requiring government-issued photo ID to vote.

“So if the Republicans would ever just make it showing basic state ID to vote, hey, I’m not going to tell 83 percent of Americans that they’re wrong, or that they are Jim Crow,” he said.

That stance put him at odds with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has repeatedly criticized the bill as “Jim Crow 2.0” and vowed no Democratic votes for it under any circumstances. Fetterman said previously he refuses to use that characterization.

Schumer took to the Senate floor on March 11 to criticize Trump’s push on the legislation, saying that the president’s stated goal—telling Republican lawmakers the bill would “guarantee the midterms”—amounted to an effort to suppress votes rather than secure them. Schumer called Trump’s threat to block all other legislation until the SAVE Act passes an attempt to hold Congress “hostage.”

Fetterman agreed the bill won’t pass regardless of where Democrats land, pointing to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to end debate.

“The reason why the SAVE Act will never pass is because of the filibuster,” he said, adding that Democrats now rely on the procedural rule even though many, including himself, ran in 2022 on eliminating it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said this week he lacks the Republican votes to impose a talking filibuster—a maneuver Trump has urged him to use that would require Democrats to continuously hold the floor to block the bill. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and John Kennedy of Louisiana are among those who have opposed the tactic.

Thune said on Thursday he would bring the SAVE America Act to the floor for a vote.

“Senate Democrats will be forced to defend their outrageous positions on these issues and explain to the American people why common sense and the Democrat Party have parted ways,” he said in remarks on the floor announcing his intentions on Thursday.

Trump has said he will not sign any other legislation until the SAVE Act clears Congress. Meanwhile, the president announced this position as lawmakers are trying to resolve a partisan standoff that caused a partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown now stretching into its fourth week.

With Fetterman’s opposition confirmed, every Senate Democrat is expected to vote against the measure when Thune brings it to the floor next week.