WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday unveiled election legislation they say will make elections safer, fulfilling a campaign promise that Democrats immediately criticized as rooted in former President Donald Trump’s denial.
The House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections, has chosen the city of Atlanta as the backdrop to introduce the bill and hold a hearing, as they weigh in on a battle over the access to polls which is largely taking place at a state level in recent years.
The committee chose Atlanta as a nod to the Georgia Elections Act of 2021 which added additional ID requirements for mail-in ballots, limited ballot boxes and prohibited people from bringing food and water to voters queuing, among other changes. The bill resulted in a Justice Department lawsuit and national controversy, including a decision by Major League Baseball to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta.
Critics said Georgia’s law would make it harder to vote and disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. On Monday, the sponsor of the new House Republican bill, Administrative Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., said it was a false narrative because voter turnout had increased between 2020 and 2022. Analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that overall voter turnout has increased, as has the gap between white and non-white turnout. Non-white turnout declined between the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections, the Brennan Center found.
The House GOP bill makes certain federal changes to assist states in administering elections, including requiring the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to provide states with access to voter data, for free, so they can remove non-citizens and dead people. from the electoral lists. It would also reform the REAL ID Act to require people’s citizenship status to be printed on identification documents like driver’s licenses for the purposes of verifying citizenship status at the ballot box. The bill also aims to deter states from allowing non-citizens to vote in local and state elections, by reducing their eligibility for subsidies under the Help America Vote Act.
“This legislation is the most substantive and conservative election integrity legislation to come before the House in more than a generation,” Steil said.
Lawmakers also took advantage of Congress’ control over Washington, DC, to propose a host of changes to the city’s election bill, seeking to make it an example of effective election administration. The new legislation would establish photo identification requirements, verification of signatures for mail-in ballots, a ban on same-day voter registration and the mailing of ballots to anyone other than those who request it in the national capital. The bill would also repeal the city’s new law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections.
New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the committee’s top Democrat, criticized Republicans for holding up Georgia’s election law SB 202 as a model, saying it was only signed into law because former President Trump lost. Georgia State in 2020.
“The Big Lie origins of SB 202 mirror the Big Lie origins of Majority ACE Law. And the detrimental effects of SB 202 on Georgia voters will be imposed on all Americans if the ACE Act is enacted nationally,” he said.
Other sections of the bill allow nonprofits engaged in politics to keep their donor lists private and remove some campaign finance regulations.
Even if it passes the House, GOP election legislation is almost certain to go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Democrats have also struggled to pass their own version of voting rights legislation that they say would expand voter access in the face of filibuster from Senate Republicans.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com