AMENDING THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO PROVIDE PHOTO IDENTIFICATION--Motion to Proceed

On 2026-08-07, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) delivered a floor speech titled "AMENDING THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO PROVIDE PHOTO IDENTIFICATION--Motion To Proceed" in the Senate.

AMENDING THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO PROVIDE PHOTO IDENTIFICATION--Motion to Proceed

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 130 (Friday, August 7, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 130 (Friday, August 7, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4556] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] AMENDING THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO PROVIDE PHOTO IDENTIFICATION--Motion to Proceed Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows: Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo identification. Cloture Motion The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state. The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows: Cloture Motion We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo identification. John Thune, Jon A. Husted, Steve Daines, John R. Curtis, Bill Cassidy, Katie Boyd Britt, Bernie Moreno, James E. Risch, Pete Ricketts, John Barrasso, John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Mike Rounds, James C. Justice, David McCormick, Tom Cotton, Ted Budd. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio. Mr. HUSTED. Madam President, using a photo ID to vote is common sense. It is an issue Americans broadly support. So tonight, this early morning, I am offering a clean, simple straightforward bill to require a photo ID to vote in America. Voters can use a driver's license, a state-issued ID, passport, military or veterans ID, or Tribal ID. No additional restrictions. No tricks. No games. No prohibitions on absentee voting. Thirty-six States require some form of photo ID. Photo ID laws have been tested in elections across this country, and they work. So tonight, I am asking my colleagues to answer one simple question: Should you have to prove who you are when you vote? Americans think we should, and tonight, we will find out if their Senators agree. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this bill to establish nationwide photo ID standards and give Americans better-run and honest and fair elections. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California. Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, colleagues, here we are after months and months and months of continuing to debate this bill, which still hasn't passed. We should be debating how to bring costs down for working families across the country. I would love to hear from my colleagues how we are going to get out of this war in Iran. Instead, here is this measure again, which is not a simple voter ID bill. As written, it is stricter than most voter ID bills in States that already have a voter ID law in place. But this goes even further, requiring voters to include a copy of their ID when they vote by mail, as well as tens of millions of Americans who vote by mail. This bill would do away with secret ballots as we know it. So colleagues, I urge you to vote no on this measure. Vote on Motion The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the mandatory quorum call under rule XXII has been waived. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo identification, shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll. Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell). Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Welch) is necessary absent. The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 46, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 231 Leg.] YEAS--52 Armstrong Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Murkowski Paul Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NAYS--46 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Fetterman Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Whitehouse Wyden NOT VOTING--2 McConnell Welch The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 46. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. The motion was rejected. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader. ____________________

Referenced legislation: S5271, S5271