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Year: 2026

Key House committee advances nationwide voter ID bill, setting up 2026 election fight

Key House committee advances nationwide voter ID bill, setting up 2026 election fight

The House of Representatives is readying to vote on a bill that would mandate photo identification for voters across the United States in the coming 2026 midterm elections. The House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most bills see a chamber-wide vote, advanced the SAVE America Act on Tuesday as conservatives continue to pressure the Senate to take up the bill after its likely House passage. It’s a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at keeping non-citizens from participating in U.S. elections. Democrats have attacked the bill as tantamount to voter suppression, while Republicans argue that it’s necessary after the influx of millions of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. during the four years of the Biden administration. TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters it would get a vote on Wednesday. The legislation is led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, in the House, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in the Senate. It is an updated version of Roy’s Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the House in April 2025 but was never taken up in the Senate. Whereas the SAVE Act would create a new federal proof of citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and impose requirements for states to keep their rolls clear of ineligible voters, the updated bill would also require photo ID to vote in any federal elections. It would also require information-sharing between state election officials and federal authorities in verifying citizenship on current voter rolls and enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pursue immigration cases if non-citizens were found to be listed as eligible to vote. The legislation is highly likely to pass the House, where the vast majority — if not virtually all — Republicans have supported similar pushes in the past. THIS SENATE DEMOCRAT WANTS VOTER ID FOR HIS CAMPAIGN EVENTS — BUT NOT FEDERAL ELECTIONS But in the Senate, where current rules say 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and hold a final vote on a bill, at least seven Democrats would be needed even if all Republicans stuck together. It’s why House conservatives are pushing Senate GOP leaders to change rules in a way that would effectively do away with the 60-vote threshold, even if alternative paths mean paralyzing the upper chamber with hours of nonstop debate. “[Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.] will take it up. The only question is, will he take it up in an environment where it can pass?” Roy posed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.  “My view is that the majority leader can and should. I’m not afraid of amendment votes…we should table all their amendments, force them to run through all their speaking, make them take the floor and filibuster.”

Dem senator fumes that GOP’s foreign funding claim ‘delegitimizes’ anger of anti-ICE agitators in US

Dem senator fumes that GOP’s foreign funding claim ‘delegitimizes’ anger of anti-ICE agitators in US

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., lamented during a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday that allegations about foreign funding and coordination among anti-ICE agitators are “delegitimizing” people’s justified “anger” and “fear” caused by federal immigration officers. Kim also called the questioning “dangerous” during the Tuesday hearing, which was about fraud and touched on concerns that foreign adversaries were financing anti-ICE efforts in the U.S. to create a strategic smokescreen meant to deter accountability away from their massive criminal fraud enterprises.       “People all over this country are frustrated and concerned and upset. They’re scared and they’re worried about things because they just saw two American citizens get killed in the street by federal agents,” Kim said Tuesday.  FOREIGN BILLIONAIRES FUNNEL $2.6B TO US ADVOCACY GROUPS TO INFLUENCE POLICY, WATCHDOG REPORT CLAIMS “The idea that people would be saying that this type of anger and this type of of outrage – whether in New Jersey or in Minnesota – is being predominantly coordinated in this type of way,” he continued. “I just have to say it is delegitimizing the anger and the fear that people are facing right now … The way in which it’s been described … I just think is very dangerous right now. And I hope that we can still say and recognize that there are a lot of people, a lot of people that are furious right now and worried.” The Senator’s arguments, such as that the violence from anti-ICE agitators stems from justified anger and that the questioning of how this violence is being organized “delegitimizes” protesting, have been frequently touted by Democrats in the past, and not just as it pertains to the ongoing anti-ICE sentiment.   During a separate congressional hearing in December, Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, described attacks against ICE agents – which are up 12,000%, according to the Trump administration – as the result of people “channeling [their] frustration.” “You’re seeing an overwhelming frustration of the American people in this country that the lack of respect and regard for the rule of law from this administration, and in particular by this Secretary, is at a level we have never seen and violates all of the constitutional norms and all of the principles of legal fairness in this country,” Johnson said. “And you’re seeing that manifest itself in threats to law enforcement, in bubbling over, because people are frustrated, and they are channeling that frustration because the administration is not listening.” HAWLEY TARGETS MINNESOTA FRAUD, CCP-LINKED MONEY AT SENATE HEARING: ‘TAXPAYERS ROBBED BLIND’ Meanwhile, in 2024, amid ongoing protests regarding the situation in Gaza and other civil unrest, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s calls for the FBI to investigate Gaza ceasefire protests for connections to Russia as “incredibly dangerous.” “From Martin Luther King Jr. to Black Lives Matter protesters, the FBI has long used ‘foreign influence’ as an excuse to conduct illegal surveillance on Americans exercising free speech rights,” the ACLU said in a post on X in 2024.      Despite claims that foreign funding accusations act as a smokescreen to “legitimize” lawful First Amendment activity, Republican-aligned witnesses during the Tuesday hearing argued billionaires, including some with ties to foreign adversaries, such as Neville Roy Singham and Hansjorg Wyss, pumped $60 million into the agitation efforts aimed at disrupting federal immigration efforts. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “It comes in the form of a check, a six-figure check,” said Government Accountability Institute VP Seamus Bruner. “We’ve built a database that contains hundreds of thousands of rows from grants from networks like the Soros Network, the Arabella funding network – as mentioned – the Neville Roy Singham funding network, many others, Tides, the Ford Foundation network, the Rockefeller Funding network, these massive NGOs that have billions of dollars to spend on all kinds of coordinated protest, or in this case, riot activity.”

Susan Collins shrugs off attacks by Democrats and Trump, says Maine voters ‘Don’t vote party line’

Susan Collins shrugs off attacks by Democrats and Trump, says Maine voters ‘Don’t vote party line’

Republican Sen. Susan Collins is well aware of the tough path ahead as she officially kicks off her 2026 re-election campaign in blue-leaning Maine. Collins is the top target for Senate Democrats as they try to win back the chamber’s majority in November’s midterm elections. “Chuck Schumer has made me once again — this is the third time he’s done this — his number one target,” Collins said in an interview with Fox News Digital soon after she announced her re-election bid, as she pointed to the longtime top Democrat in the Senate. Collins took to social media a couple of hours earlier to declare, “GOOD NEWS! I am ALL-IN for 2026.” LONGTIME REPUBLICAN SENATOR MAKES A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT Democrats have long targeted the 73-year-old Collins, who was first elected to the Senate three decades ago, but keep coming up short. “I will be outspent as I was in 2020, but fortunately, Maine people are famously independent. They look at the individual candidates, and they don’t just necessarily vote a party line,” the senator said. Collins was one of the Senate Republicans who voted to convict after the House impeached President Donald Trump in 2021, following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the president aiming to upend congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results. IS THE REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY AT RISK IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS? And Collins has earned Trump’s ire with Senate votes that go against the administration’s wishes. Trump has so far not made an endorsement in the pivotal contest, and has taken shots at Collins throughout the year for breaking ranks with him and Republicans, particularly when she voted in favor of bipartisan legislation that would have reined in his war authorities in Venezuela. Trump declared that Collins and the handful of other Republicans that voted with Democrats to curb his war powers “should never be elected to office again.” “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post at the time. When asked if Trump should weigh in, or stay neutral in the contest, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I would defer to Susan Collins on that.” “I think she knows how to run in Maine. She’s been incredibly successful there. She is a veteran campaigner who knows her state well and knows what works,” Thune said. “So I would, I guess, defer to her on any decisions that are made related to her campaign and what she would like to see happen or not see happen in terms of endorsements, but we will be all in trying to make sure that she gets re-elected,” he continued. Her willingness to criticize Trump and to break with his policies may be beneficial to Collins, who needs support from independents and some Democrats to earn re-election. “What I think the President’s criticism demonstrates is that I’m independent in the way I approach issues. I look at what the impact is on the state of Maine and what the impact is on the country and Mainers appreciate that,” she told Fox News Digital. Collins emphasized, “I support President Trump when I think he’s right, I don’t when I think he’s wrong, and that’s the approach I’ve always taken with all of the presidents with whom I’ve worked. I’ve never agreed 100% with any of them. So, this President is more outspoken when you disagree with him than previous presidents, but I think that I can fully justify how I have voted.” TRUMP BLASTS GOP WAR POWERS DEFECTORS, SAYS THEY ‘SHOULD NEVER BE ELECTED TO OFFICE AGAIN’ But the Maine Democratic Party charged in a statement that “Susan Collins has spent the last 30 years betraying Maine, from stripping Mainers’ affordable health care, to casting the decisive vote to confirm Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, to voting with Donald Trump 94% of the time.” “She now faces some of the lowest approval ratings of her career because Mainers see through her political games and fake shows of concern. In November, we will reject her at the ballot box,” added state party executive director Devon Murphy-Anderson. National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Sen. Tim Scott called Collins “a battle-tested leader whose fierce independence has led to historic wins for Maine.” But in a closed-door NRSC briefing last week to Senate Republicans, Scott pointed to the latest Fox News national poll which showed the GOP facing a ballot box deficit, and said it could impact specific Senate races this year. GOP sources confirmed to Fox News Digital that Scott said the toughest challenge may be in Maine. Collins is likely to face either two-term Democratic Gov. Jane Mills, who has the tacit support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the DSCC, or political newcomer, veteran, and oyster farmer Graham Platner, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, in November. The Democratic primary, which is expected to be competitive, is scheduled for June. Collins charged that Democrats are working “to distort my record,” with Democratic-aligned outside groups running ads “that are probably false and that’s very disappointing. The people of Maine deserve better.” Asked whom she’d rather face in the general election, Collins said, “I leave that up to the Democrats to decide. I know that a ton of outside money is going to be poured into this race, regardless of who the Democratic candidate is.”