{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-once-again-defeats-republican-efforts-to-advance-save-act-condemns-trumps-tariffs/", "WATCH: Padilla Once Again Defeats Republican Efforts to Advance SAVE Act, Condemns Trump\u2019s Tariffs", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padila (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, once again took to the Senate floor to lead his colleagues in defeating Republicans\u2019 attempts to pass parts of the SAVE Act voter suppression bill after the 2026 midterm election has already begun. Padilla opposed Senator Mike Lee\u2019s (R-Utah) efforts to advance Senator Jon Husted\u2019s (R-Ohio) MAGA voter ID bill, S. 5271, which consists of a provision of the SAVE Act that would require eligible voters to provide specific types of photo identification when voting, including in their mail and absentee ballots, threatening to violate the right to a secret ballot and cause chaos in an election where mail ballots are already printed and voting is underway.\n\nWith Election Day now 41 days away, Padilla highlighted the deliberate timing of Republicans\u2019 attempts to advance the bill. Some eligible voters have already exercised their right to vote early, and Padilla emphasized the additional burden, especially for mail and absentee ballots, and chaos that would immediately follow if the voter ID bill passed.\n\n\u201cThe 2026 midterm election has already begun \u2014 it\u2019s in full swing,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cSo let\u2019s not be fooled about this attempt to pass a piece of the SAVE Act. Number one, the substance. It\u2019s not just a voter ID bill. It\u2019s a bill, and the timing is curious, that seeks to create chaos and confusion over vote by mail and absentee voting. The other part is, indeed, the timing and its implications. Trying to change the rules, because this bill, if signed into law, would go immediately into effect, creates chaos in the middle of an election that\u2019s already underway.\u201d\n\nPadilla sounded the alarm on President Trump\u2019s efforts to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections and detailed the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision to block Trump\u2019s vote-by-mail executive order\u2019s directive that the U.S. Postal Service determine who is and is not allowed to receive ballots. He highlighted the bipartisan opposition to these burdensome provisions, with the Republican Lieutenant Governor of Utah, the state\u2019s chief election officer, saying in March that this provision would be \u201cviolating our constitutional right to a secret ballot\u201d and the Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine vetoing a similar bill at the state level in June, calling the mail voting ID requirement \u201ca significant burden.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll this talk about changing the rules around elections. You know, this Administration, including the president himself, has been trying nonstop to interfere and change the rules on the elections for a long time now, and those efforts have been successfully pushed back on,\u201d continued Senator Padilla. \u201cIt\u2019s a desperate attempt to hold on to power, because the writing is on the wall. Poll after poll, approval ratings, etc., show that Donald Trump is going to be in for a rough night this November, but it\u2019s also an attempt to distract.\u201d\n\nPadilla raised significant concerns about Republicans\u2019 continued fixation on passing this voter suppression bill and highlighted issues that working Americans are facing, such as the rising costs of groceries, healthcare, and gas. He emphasized that instead of focusing on voter ID, Republicans should instead focus on the affordability crisis that Trump has created through his unnecessary tariffs. Padilla concluded by trying to pass the End Trump\u2019s Tariff Tax Act to undo Trump\u2019s tariffs on U.S. imports. Republicans objected.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump promised that these tariffs would bring back manufacturing, make Americans more wealthy, and pay down the nation\u2019s debt, create jobs, and lower prices for consumers. That sure sounded good, but it couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. None of that has happened,\u201d Senator Padilla concluded. \u201cInstead of focusing on those issues, they are once again, taking precious time on the Senate floor and talking about unnecessary changes to how people should be able to vote or not vote \u2013 maybe that\u2019s their ultimate objective \u2013 for an election that\u2019s already underway. Just because your team is losing at halftime doesn\u2019t mean you call timeout and change the rules, or change the referees trying to change the outcome.\u201d\n\nAs Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, which has oversight over federal elections, Padilla has led the charge opposing Trump\u2019s overreaching anti-voter SAVE Act. Last month, Padilla led his Senate colleagues in once again defeating MAGA Republicans\u2019 efforts to advance Husted\u2019s voter ID bill. In June, Padilla led his Senate Democratic colleagues in defeating Republicans\u2019 efforts to include the SAVE Act in their anti-immigrant reconciliation bill twice in one night. During the failed March 2026 \u201ctalking filibuster\u201d attempt, Padilla took to the Senate floor four times as a leader in the Democratic opposition to the SAVE Act.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available here.\n\nFull transcript of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available below:\n\nReserving the right to object, let me remind us all, colleagues, that we, as of today, are 41 days from the midterm elections, or, as I like to refer it \u2013 refer to it \u2013 as simply the last day to vote, because a lot of people in states across the country take advantage of their right and opportunity to vote early in person, like people in Virginia did beginning this last weekend.\n\nMany people in states across the country, including my home state of California, exercise their right and option to vote by mail. Uh, I\u2019ll get back to that in a minute. The point is, in a growing number of states, the midterm election is already underway. People in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Alabama are already receiving their ballots in the mail. In Virginia, South Dakota, Minnesota, Vermont, and Illinois, voters are already going to the polls to vote in person early. And in the next couple of weeks, additional states will begin \u2013 nine more states will have begun their early voting. And in my home state of California, ballots will be mailed to every registered voter in the state.\n\nSo again, the bottom line here is the 2026 midterm election has already begun. It\u2019s in full swing. So let\u2019s not be fooled about this attempt to pass a piece of the SAVE Act. Uh, number one, the substance. It\u2019s not just a voter ID bill. It\u2019s a bill, and the timing is curious, that seeks to create chaos and confusion over vote by mail and absentee voting.\n\nThe other part is, indeed, the timing and its implications. Trying to change the rules, because this bill, if signed into law, would go immediately into effect, creates chaos in the middle of an election that\u2019s already underway.\n\nBut don\u2019t just take my word for it. Let me quote the Republican Lieutenant Governor of Utah, who says that this, quote, \u201cis violating our constitutional right to a secret ballot.\u201d Why? Because the requirement to include a copy of your drivers license when you\u2019re voting by mail undermines the sec \u2013 the notion of a secret ballot in America.\n\nLet me quote the Republican governor of Ohio, who says that a very similar bill that reached his desk in the state of Ohio represented, quote, \u201ca significant burden.\u201d And again, it\u2019s not just a potential or theoretical significant burden for some election sometime in the future. It would go into effect immediately, causing chaos and confusion and a burden for election administrators who wouldn\u2019t even know how to begin to comply with this for an election that\u2019s already underway.\n\nLet me go even further, Mr. President, and reference the Supreme Court\u2019s recent actions when they blocked President Trump\u2019s executive order on vote by mail, and what he was trying to do, giving authority and direction to the United States Postal Service to determine which voters get their ballots and which don\u2019t. Even Justice Kavanaugh, who I disagree with on much, but even Justice Kavanaugh said it was in part because changing the rules so close to an election, quote, \u201cwould be arbitrary and capricious.\u201d That was a couple weeks ago that this ruling came out. If at that time the Supreme Court deemed it too close to an election, we\u2019re even closer now. And so, again, not nearly the time to properly, responsibly implement, even if you agreed with this bad policy.\n\nBut let me make a case for what is really going on here. All this talk about changing the rules around elections. You know, this administration, including the president himself, has been trying nonstop to interfere and change the rules on the elections for a long time now, and those efforts have been successfully pushed back on.\n\nI expect him to continue these threats and attempts, not just between now and Election Day, probably on Election Day and post-Election Day, if history is any indicator. Why? I mean, first of all, it\u2019s a desperate attempt to hold on to power, because the writing is on the wall. Poll after poll, approval ratings, et cetera, show that Donald Trump is going to be in for a rough night this November, but it\u2019s also an attempt to distract.\n\nYou would think that he or we could be spending more time on trying to bring down costs for working families. But no, for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized war in Iran, the price on everything is not just not going down \u2013 it keeps going up. The price of gas that people put into their passenger cars to get to and from work, or wherever they need to go. The cost of diesel is also at record levels and being passed on to consumers in terms of increased costs on everything else: groceries, clothing, consumer electronics, and more. The threat to the economy is so bad that the Federal Reserve has not only not lowered interest rates, as Donald Trump has practically demanded, they\u2019ve taken a recent step to increase interest rates for the first time in three years to try to rein in inflation.\n\nSo nothing\u2019s getting cheaper, nothing\u2019s getting easier. And a recent report showed that, from the administration\u2019s tariffs, again, the war in Iran, the trade wars that are unnecessary, and the bad economic decisions are taking a toll on American families. $4,200 per household in increased costs because of higher prices. And now the president has once again threatened our Canadian neighbors with endless tariffs.\n\nLook at healthcare. The average cost of employer-provided health care is expected to increase by at least 11%. What happened to the so-called Liberation Day of last April? President Trump promised that these tariffs would bring back manufacturing, make Americans more wealthy, and pay down the nation\u2019s debt, create jobs, and lower prices for consumers. That sure sounded good, but it couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. None of that has happened. Actually, the exact opposite has come to bear.\n\nBut again, instead of focusing on those issues, they are once again, taking precious time on the Senate floor and talking about unnecessary changes to how people should be able to vote or not vote \u2013 maybe that\u2019s their ultimate objective \u2013 for an election that\u2019s already underway. Just because your team is losing at halftime doesn\u2019t mean you call timeout and change the rules, or change the referees trying to change the outcome.\n\nSo let\u2019s dispense with this measure and get back to the real work at hand.\n\nSo, Mr. President, I would therefore ask the Senator to modify his request, so that instead of S. 5271, and notwithstanding Rule 22, the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 5390, the End Trump\u2019s Tariff Tax Act, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration, and further, that the bill be considered, read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered, made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-24T09:44:48Z", "2026-09-24T09:45:52Z"]], "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.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-once-again-defeats-republican-efforts-to-advance-save-act-condemns-trumps-tariffs/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9271660819649696, "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"}