John,

Congress must pass a government funding bill by September 30th in order to avoid a government shutdown and avoid the interruption of critical services for millions of people and families. But, right-wing members of Congress are insisting on the addition of a poison pill rider that attacks immigrants and low-income voters.

They want to attach the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to this must-pass government funding bill, which would require proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.

Instead of doing their job and passing essential legislation to keep the government funded, extremists in Congress are using the SAVE Act as a boogeyman to attack vulnerable communities.

Proof-of-citizenship requirements disproportionately affect people of color, people with low incomes, and naturalized citizens, who may be wrongly removed from voter rolls due to outdated or incorrect data. More than 9% of American citizens of voting age don’t have easy access to their proof of citizenship; that’s true of nearly 11% of people of color.¹

Send a direct message to Congress today and demand they pass a government funding bill this month without any poison pill riders.

As lawmakers return to Washington, D.C. this week, we need them to pass a “clean” Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires before the end of the year to enable Congress to finalize full-year spending bills that put the needs of people with the lowest incomes first.

The House is currently proposing a CR that goes until late March 2025. Instead, Congress should return to Washington after the election and finalize bipartisan FY 2025 appropriations legislation that adequately invests in human needs while rejecting efforts to include harmful cuts or policy riders in these bills.

A CR that goes until March 2025 will keep funding for human needs programs at current levels, even though we know the need has greatly increased. This creates uncertainty around budgets, grant programs, and staffing. For example, previous delays in finalizing spending bills meant rural Americans and American Indians on reservations were undercounted in the 2020 Census by canceling some important tests in 2017 that the Census Bureau planned in order to confirm how to reach key populations.²

Congress must do its job and put the needs of the most vulnerable first, not succumb to fear mongering and petty partisan politics.

Write to your members of Congress now telling them to pass a short-term CR without poison pill riders that attack our voting rights.

Thank you for all you do,

Meredith Dodson
Senior Director of Public Policy, CHN Action

¹ Millions of Americans Don’t Have Documents Proving Their Citizenship Readily Available
² Congress Resumes Fiscal Year 2025 Negotiations: What’s In It for Census?