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Committee advances bill enabling Secretary of State to use federal SAVE portal if available
Summary
Leader Lambert said H.B. 2185 would let the Secretary of State use the federal SAVE portal to check voter eligibility if DHS makes the portal available; members asked whether the state must adopt federal language. Committee sent the bill to calendar and rules (15 ayes, 5 nos).
Leader Lambert introduced H.B. 2185, saying the bill would allow the Secretary of State to access the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) data portal if the U.S. Department of Homeland Security makes it available via secure web service.
Lambert told members the bill does not adopt federal statutory language but provides a data portal mechanism: "It's a data portal. So they if the data portal is not available, this is still law, but you can't access something that doesn't exist." Representative Miller asked whether the state would have to adopt identical federal language; Lambert replied no and that the Secretary of State would coordinate access and authority.
Members discussed how local officials would interact with any data access and whether the measure would become operative only when the federal portal exists. The clerk recorded 15 ayes and 5 nos and the bill was sent to calendar and rules.
