{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-says-democrats-are-more-afraid-of-ice-than-iran-as-dhs-shutdown-continues-senate-works-through-weekend-on-save-america-act/", "Lankford Says Democrats Are \u201cMore Afraid of ICE Than Iran\u201d as DHS Shutdown Continues, Senate Works Through Weekend on SAVE America Act", "2026-03-21", "2026", "2026-03", "Republican", "Senate", "OK", "James Lankford", "L000575", "www.lankford.senate.gov", "lankford", "https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "page_html", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair, joined Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), and Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) at a press conference Saturday morning as the Senate continues working through the weekend on the SAVE America Act and efforts to restore Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding.\n\nLankford\u2019s remarks (as delivered):\n\n\u201cSo this is the challenge that we face today. We have the Department of Homeland Security closed right now because apparently my Democratic colleagues are more afraid of ICE than they are of Iran. And the challenges that we face now in the conflict internationally, that we know that we have threats back to the homeland. But my Democratic colleagues in the Senate just refused to even pay attention to that at all.\n\n\u201cStacked on top of that is the issue we\u2019ve been talking about for weeks, and we\u2019re still working through this weekend to be able to negotiate. And that is the most basic thing in American life: voting. The 1965 Voting Rights Act begins with \u2018All citizens.\u2019 This should not be controversial. It is already federal law that requires only citizens vote in the United States.\n\n\u201cWe trust that they sign up as only citizens, but we\u2019re not verifying except in a few states. About nine states actually do verification of citizenship all over the country. And you know what? They still have people show up to vote. Thirty-six states require voter ID to be able to show up to vote, including my own state. My own state requires voter ID.\n\n\u201cWhether you do mail-in voting or in-person voting, you have to have voter ID in that. This is not complicated. This is simple and straightforward. It\u2019s not even controversial, except in Washington, DC. Across the country, if you were to ask anyone, \u2018Should you show an ID to be able to vote?\u2019 They would say, \u2018Well, yeah, that shouldn\u2019t be a problem on that.\u2019\n\n\u201cShould you ask the simple question, \u2018Should only American citizens vote?\u2019 And they would say, \u2018Of course that should be so.\u2019 But for some reason that\u2019s controversial among Democrats in Washington, DC. This is simple. This is straightforward. It\u2019s why we continue to be able to push this commonsense legislation that the American people want us to get done.\u201d\n\nBackground\n\nLankford has remained a vocal supporter of both the SAVE America Act as a cosponsor and of its predecessor, S.128, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The SAVE America Act sets requirements for states to verify US citizenship in order to register to vote and require photo ID to vote. Additionally, the bill compels states to purge non-citizens from voter rolls and establishes federal penalties for intentionally registering non-citizens.\n\nArticle I, Section 4 of the Constitution states that elections are governed by state law, allowing state legislatures to prescribe the time, place, and manner of elections held within their states. However, it is also federal law that no one can vote in an American election who is not a United States citizen.\n\nYou can watch his remarks HERE. You can download it HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-says-democrats-are-more-afraid-of-ice-than-iran-as-dhs-shutdown-continues-senate-works-through-weekend-on-save-america-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9787590242922306, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}