U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing growing pressure to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act as part of a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded beyond September 30.

The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections and is strongly opposed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has been an outspoken proponent of the measure and says attaching it to a CR spending bill is the best way to move it through Congress.

Lee also says the SAVE Act is necessary to ensure that the 10 million plus illegal immigrants who have crossed the border, as well as the 30 million or so non-citizens in the U.S. don’t vote in the November election.

In addition to the requirement of proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, the SAVE Act also requires states to verify citizenship and to remove non-citizens from voting rolls.

The Act would also require legal action against officials who register non-citizens to vote.

Arizona counties are being sued by America First Legal over refusal to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls.

While some Arizona officials maintain that voting by non-citizens is rare, concerns remain that non-citizens who are illegally registered to vote may not be the ones to actually cast their own ballots and may lead to ballot harvesting.

The Biden Administration has issued a statement of opposition to the SAVE Act, claiming that current laws are sufficient to prevent non-citizen voting and that the bill risks purging eligible voters from the rolls.

Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) told The Hill:

“If Democrats are unwilling to fund government into March … and their big hang-up is the fact that they want noncitizens to vote, let them take that to the American people. They want to shut government down over that, that should be on them.”