WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Administration Committee voted along party lines on Thursday to advance two election-related bills to the House.
The Republican-led committee agreed HR8281a bill that prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which is infrequent and already illegal, and HR8399which would limit donations from foreign citizens to political campaigns. Both were voted 6-1.
The votes came at a time when Republicans were making immigration a central campaign issue for the November election.
“Non-citizen voting in our elections must stop,” said committee chairman Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, in his opening remarks.
The committee’s lead Democrat, Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, said the bills would undermine Americans’ trust in U.S. elections.
“This narrative will exacerbate the dangerous infection of election denial that is spreading among the American public,” Morelle said.
The noncitizen voting rights bill that the committee voted on Thursday would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and would allow states to verify citizenship through federal databases maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
“We are working to increase the integrity of our elections and exclude non-citizens from participating in our elections,” Steil said.
Morelle said the bill would disenfranchise eligible voters because voter registration requires a birth certificate or passport.
“This bill is unduly restrictive,” he said.
Morelle also objected to the bill regulating foreign donations to political campaigns.
“This does not help to withdraw foreign money from our politics,” he said.
He argued that some of the provisions would bring the Federal Election Commission to its knees by curtailing its enforcement power.
DC invoice
Steil pointed to Washington, DC, where non-citizens are allowed to vote in local elections, and said Congress cannot allow DC’s “election law to spread throughout the United States.”
In a few cities and municipalities, non-citizens are allowed to participate in local elections. sparked a national conservative rallying cry on the voting of non-citizens.
The House of Representatives voted 262 to 143 on Thursday to pass HR192which would repeal the DC law.
The bill is unlikely to come to a vote in the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority.
Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to repeal local laws of the DC District.
