The SAVE America Act must be passed by the Senate as soon as possible, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Wednesday. Roberts appeared on “The VINCE Show,” hosted by Vince Coglianese, and said he supports President Donald Trump pushing for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to include the SAVE America Act. “We’ve been saying for months it may be the only way to get the SAVE America Act passed is to attach it to FISA, and so I applaud the president for what he’s doing,” Roberts said. FISA allows the government to surveil foreigners without a warrant, and it expired last Friday after Congress failed to pass an extension of the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called it “unrealistic” to bundle the two bills, and said he will only move to pass FISA once he’s confident there are enough votes. “How Thune described the situation and the rules of the Senate yesterday are wrong—it’s just utterly wrong,” Roberts said. “The way you do this is to actually force debate. And ultimately, as Mike Lee has outlined so well for so many months, there is a way forward.” Vice President JD Vance told the Daily Signal today that the Senate should at least attempt to pass the legislation.“Why don’t we try, and at least force people to vote against it,” he said. “One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about the legislative process is that people will go into it saying this isn’t possible, therefore we’re not even going to try. Well, let’s actually see, let’s try it, and if it’s not possible, then let the people put their name on it.”  NEW: @VP responds to @LeaderJohnThune saying it's impossible to pass SAVE America by attaching it to FISA."Why don't we try, and at least force people to vote against it?" he tells @DailySignal."One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about the legislative process is… pic.twitter.com/H98j9gND8r— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) June 18, 2026 The SAVE America Act should not be so highly debated, according to Roberts. It’s necessary to secure election integrity. “All this is is voter identification and making sure that you’re a citizen to be voting in our elections,” Roberts said. “It’s not controversial.” Voting to pass the SAVE America Act will only help senators who are up for reelection, according to Roberts.“The great thing about this is—just to paint a positive picture for senators who may be worried—is, it’s really popular. The conservative base will turn out in the midterms if you go do this,” Roberts said. “This is one of the reasons we need to do it.” Heritage is “working feverishly” to pressure the Senate into voting on the SAVE America Act alongside FISA, according to Roberts. “We’re totally with the president,” Roberts said. “We need to get this done. We need to get it done this summer.”

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Sen. Rick Scott will introduce a bill designed to end the Optional Practical Training visa program, which incentivizes employers to hire foreign students. The Florida Republican’s “Prioritizing American Talent Act” would prohibit Department of Homeland Security funding from being used to help foreigners secure employment in the U.S. The Optional Practical Training program, created in 1992, allows international students to remain in the United States to work for nearly four years after graduation. Employers receive a tax break for hiring the graduates under the program, which some say gives foreign nationals an advantage over U.S. citizens.  Scott has said the OPT program creates a national security risk by allowing Chinese students to access sensitive technology and cutting-edge research at top U.S. companies and universities before returning home. “We need to make more jobs available for hardworking Americans, not foreign workers who come over to exploit the system—including thousands from Communist China,” Scott said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “This is why we need to end the Optional Practical Training Program, which has allowed employers to import foreign labor under the guise of job training. That’s why I am proud to introduce this bill to end it.” While the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to end the program by issuing a new rule, President Donald Trump’s administration has not publicly begun the rulemaking process, leading some conservative members of Congress to propose their own bills to end the program. “We need to make sure that Americans who work hard and play by the rules still have the chance to live their American dream,” Scott said. Scott told the Daily Signal people are “shocked” whenever he talks about OPT. “It makes you mad,” he said. “We all pay our taxes, and then we create incentives for our companies in our country to hire foreign workers.” “This should happen today, one, to help Americans get jobs, and number two, we got to get rid of this for the fraud,” he said. “Number three, we’ve got a lot of people here from Communist China, they’re spying on us and stealing things from our companies.”

The fate of Virginia’s two-year state budget, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1, is in the hands of Democrats who control both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion, even as the party remains divided over the tax treatment of data centers. Sen. L. Louise Lucas vowed that “there is not going to be a government shutdown.” Speaking to WTKR in Virginia Beach on Wednesday, she added, “as soon as I can get in the car, I’m on my way back to Richmond. We will have a budget.” It was always obvious that Democrats were going to unite, of course, which Daily Signal contributor Joe Thomas pointed out on Wednesday. However, the months of debate have made it a rough first year for Gov. Abigail Spanberger as the party dickered over what is the most basic facet of governing: delivering a budget. Lucas is president pro tempore of the Senate and a staunch opponent of a controversial retail sales and use tax exemption that encourages companies to build data centers in Virginia. She hasn’t been willing to move ahead with a budget that maintains it. “Companies worth trillions of dollars are whining about paying their fair share,” Lucas insisted at an appearance in Chesterfield County on Tuesday. “We need to make sure these centers aren’t doing harm to our communities.” She has since proposed an impact fee for data centers, which might generate as much as $1.7 billion over the next two years. Sen. Mamie Locke, a Democrat from Hampton, said on Tuesday that the tax break is too expensive and should be repealed. When it was implemented, “the impact was supposed to be $1.5 million per year,” she said. “Now what is the impact? $2.9 billion a year and growing.” For their part, leading Republicans also oppose the data center exemption. “I am somebody who thinks we need to get rid of the data center tax break, because I don’t think we need to be giving $2 billion a year to huge AI big tech firms,” state Sen. Glen Sturtevant told The Daily Signal. “It’s ultimately Virginians who pay for that in higher electric bills.” Lucas has been barnstorming the state on what is billed as a “listening tour.” Tuesday’s stop was hosted by state Sen. Mike Jones, who told the crowd at Manchester Middle School that they would hear from “people from across the spectrum” about the issue. However, all the invited speakers—including educators, a meteorologist, and county government officials—spoke in opposition to data centers. “I’m not anti-data centers,” Jones said. “But I am pro-money and believe everyone should pay their fair share.” Earlier in the day, Jones was reportedly asked to leave an event where Gov. Abigail Spanberger was hosting a ceremonial bill signing, perhaps because of his support for Lucas’ visit. The House of Delegates released a proposal late last week that would balance the budget and would also retain the tax break, which lawmakers drafted years ago to encourage high-tech development in the state. The exemption isn’t set to run out until 2035. The governor has said she supports maintaining the tax break. “I’m not going to break a contract that the state has signed,” she told Cardinal News last month. “What if it’s XYZ industry tomorrow or another one the day after And so, it is essential that the commonwealth of Virginia not just keep its word but actually abide by contracts.” Spanberger also criticized senators for not putting forward a concrete plan. “What we’re seeing on the Senate side is there is no written proposal,” she told WTKR on Monday. “There is no explanation of how it is that they intend to arrive at whatever or what it is they’re proposing relative to data centers.” House Speaker Don Scott, who presides over a 64-36 majority, warned that Lucas has triggered “a civil war among Democrats.” Scott told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Lucas is “refusing to negotiate a compromise.” Scott had planned to convene the House on Thursday but has shelved that until there is some movement among Democrats. The Senate is scheduled to meet next week. The commonwealth of Virginia has not had a state government shutdown in modern history. Democrats, however, are bringing a shutdown closer than it has been in modern memory. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has announced its next president and CEO amid a federal indictment into alleged fraud regarding payments to members of the Ku Klux Klan. Ryan P. Haygood, who serves as president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, will formally join the SPLC in August, the center announced Tuesday. “I am humbled and honored to join the SPLC’s incredible team and stellar board at this pivotal moment,” Haygood said. Here are five things to know about Haygood and the SPLC. 1. What Is the SPLC? The SPLC gained its reputation by suing the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy, but today, it puts mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with Klan chapters. The SPLC also faces federal charges for allegedly funding the very hatred it claims it exists to oppose. The SPLC allegedly reimbursed Klan members for a cross-burning and paid an organizer of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. The SPLC admits that it paid members of white supremacist groups, but claimed those payments were part of an informant program that opposes the groups. The indictment makes sense because the SPLC exaggerates how hateful America is to raise money on combating that hate. In addition to publishing the “hate map,” the SPLC runs an education program called “Learning for Justice.” The program has repeatedly defended critical race theory (a lens of viewing history that teaches students to deconstruct American society on the premise that it is systemically racist), while the “hate map” attacks the theory’s opponents. 2. Critical Race Theory Proponent Haygood has repeatedly advocated for the claim that America is still systemically racist, despite the civil rights movement’s progress. In 2021, he described the mission of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice as “to topple load-bearing walls of structural inequality” using “cutting-edge racial justice advocacy to build reparative systems that create wealth, transform justice and harness democratic power.” He claimed the COVID-19 pandemic “exposed the pre-existing and deeply embedded cracks of structural racism” in New Jersey’s foundation. In February 2024, he claimed that the $300,000 racial wealth gap in New Jersey “reflects something inherently wrong with the system in which we operate, going back to slavery, which shaped every aspect of our founding and every aspect of our present-day reality.” 3. Reparations Under Haygood’s leadership, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice created the New Jersey Reparations Council. The council published a report in June 2025 calling not just for direct payments to black people, but also comprehensive policy change. “[B]ecause slavery harmed both enslaved and free Black people, and because segregation and institutional racism have harmed descendants of enslaved people as well as Black people who arrived in New Jersey well after slavery, all Black people in New Jersey are eligible for reparations,” the report states. It claims that “the only way to close the racial wealth gap” is “through direct payments to Black individuals… in tandem with transformational policies that change systems.” These “policy remedies” include: a government entity to oversee reparations; reforms to expand “democracy” such as lowering the voting age to 16 years old for non-federal elections; passing a constitutional amendment “guaranteeing a right to full employment;” increasing the minimum wage; creating programs to prioritize hiring racial minorities in medicine; cutting carbon emissions on the basis that highways were historically constructed to go through black neighborhoods so “vehicles pose a greater threat to the health of Black communities;” establishing a government-created legal defense fund to institutionalize lawsuits against “polluters;” and shifting funds away from police and toward “non-law enforcement, multidisciplinary response teams.” 4. Opposing Voter ID Before joining the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Haygood served as deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund. According to his institute profile, Haygood “led LDF’s successful challenge to Texas’ racially discriminatory photo ID law,” which Haygood argued was an “unconstitutional poll tax.” In 2011, Texas passed Senate Bill 14, which requires all in-person voters in the Lone Star State to present a valid photo ID when voting. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder objected to the law, claiming that it violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because it would disproportionately affect black voters. While a federal district court upheld Holder’s objection, the Supreme Court later ruled in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) that the formula for Section 5 was unconstitutional. After the voter ID law went into effect, voter turnout actually increased in Texas, even in urban counties with large minority populations. 5. Haygood’s Faith Haygood presents his Christian faith publicly. His LinkedIn profile references Micah 6:8, which states that God requires people to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” His profile describes him as “saved by God’s grace,” and cites 2 Timothy 1:7, in which St. Paul writes that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.” Haygood and his wife reportedly mentor young people through C.H.O.S.E.N., a Newark-based group that “seeks to prepare young people for purpose-driven living by developing and supporting spiritual growth, character, educational excellence, leadership, advocacy, and community service.” The SPLC may have chosen Haygood as CEO in part to address accusations that the SPLC is anti-Christian. Haygood’s faith arguably does not answer this charge, however, because the SPLC still demonizes traditional Christian doctrine on marriage and sexuality as “hateful.”

After the Senate failed to advance legislation backed by President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans are moving to attach voter ID provisions to must-pass bills such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The SAVE America Act, authored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and showing ID when casting ballots. The bill has passed the House twice this year but has stalled in the Senate. “No more delays,” Roy wrote on X on Thursday. “No more excuses. No more math problems. Pass Rep. Roy’s SAVE America Act!” Despite calls from Trump and support from many Republicans, and overwhelming public support for Voter ID, the Senate has not taken up the measure. Lawmakers have also declined to eliminate the 60-vote threshold—known as the filibuster—which would allow the bill to pass with a simple majority. During a Thursday press conference, Vice President JD Vance told Daily Signal White House Correspondent Elizabeth Mitchell that Senate leadership has been reluctant to pursue changes such as abolishing the filibuster, urging lawmakers instead to allow a vote. NEW: @VP responds to @LeaderJohnThune saying it's impossible to pass SAVE America by attaching it to FISA."Why don't we try, and at least force people to vote against it?" he tells @DailySignal."One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about the legislative process is… pic.twitter.com/H98j9gND8r— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) June 18, 2026 “How many American senators know that the American people love the Save America Act because they believe in voter ID, but how many of those same senators don’t want to vote for it because they know that the radical elements within their own party would punish them for it?,” Vance told The Daily Signal. “One of the things that sometimes frustrates me about the legislative process is that people will go into it saying, ‘This isn’t possible, therefore we’re not even going to try.’ Well, let’s actually see. Let’s try it. And if it’s not possible, then let the people put their name on it.” In response, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., pledged to pursue a strategy of attaching the SAVE America Act to must-pass legislation to force Senate action. That approach has been discussed in Republican circles as a pathway to enact the bill after it stalled as standalone legislation. “This is why I will be offering an amendment to place it on the NDAA and if that fails, it will have to be on FISA,” Luna wrote on X, responding to a report that Republican senators were divided over advancing Trump’s agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office has disputed claims that Republicans are deliberately blocking the legislation. In a separate post, Luna criticized the Senate’s handling of the bill. “The Senate has openly declared disdain for the American people,” she wrote. “The House must place the SAVE America Act on the NDAA. If this fails, then it must go on FISA.” Trump has also weighed in, signaling he would oppose moving forward with surveillance legislation absent election reforms. “For the good of the nation, and for the people of our country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday, he would not support a FISA bill without inclusion of the SAVE America Act. Luna responded, “No Save America. No FISA.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., echoed that position, saying he supports tying the legislation to must-pass measures. “I’m 100% with @POTUS,” Tuberville wrote on social media. “Any FISA extensions MUST include the SAVE America Act.” He later added that the Senate should halt other legislative action until the measure is passed. “The Senate shouldn’t be doing ANYTHING until we pass the SAVE America Act,” Tuberville wrote. “Election security is the NUMBER ONE issue leading up to the midterms.”