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[Pages S3338-S3339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Election Security
Mr. President, on another matter, there has been a lot of discussion
since the election of 2016 about election security, and correctly so.
With the first primary of the 2020 election being only 8 months away,
there could not be a more critical time to discuss the work that has
been done since 2016 to secure our Nation's election infrastructure.
There has been a lot of focus over the last 2\1/2\ years on what
exactly did and did not happen in 2016. We know there was a lot of
meddling by Russian state actors who tried to sow discord and confusion
and pit American against American through the use of social media and
propaganda. There is one piece of information that has remained
perfectly clear--and it is of some comfort to me--which is that no
votes were actually changed or altered, but we can't assume this will
be the case in the future. What we did see was a concerted effort by
the Russian Government to infiltrate our systems and sow division and
discord among Americans, as the Presiding Officer knows, which was the
conclusion reached by the intelligence community assessment in January
of 2017, which was supported by the Senate Intelligence Committee's
unclassified summary of that assessment last summer, and which was
again reiterated in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's recent report.
I don't want to mince words on this point. Any attempt, successful or
unsuccessful, to interfere with our elections is unacceptable and would
severely undermine our self-government and our Democratic values.
[[Page S3339]]
Across the Federal Government, there was an immediate effort to
prevent what happened in 2016 from repeating itself in 2018. The
Intelligence Committee began investigating measures taken by the
Russian Government in 2016 to find out, one, what happened, and, two,
how we can prevent that from happening in the future.
While there was evidence of continued disinformation campaigns, the
Intelligence Community found that 2018 was largely interference-free.
Again, we can't assume that will be the case going forward, but 2018,
thankfully, was largely interference-free. That was the conclusion of
the FBI Director, Chris Wray, but he called 2018 ``a dress rehearsal
for the big show,'' and that is the 2020 Presidential election.
We have to continue to work to strengthen our efforts to protect our
elections, and I believe we are already doing some good work in the
Senate to accomplish exactly that. Just last week we passed the
Defending Elections against Trolls from Enemy Regimes Act, or the DETER
Act. This legislation was introduced by our colleagues Senator Graham
and Senator Durbin, and it sends an important message to foreign
governments that attempts to meddle in our elections will not be
tolerated.
That legislation makes individuals who have done that--who have
attempted to interfere in our elections--categorically inadmissible to
the United States.
It passed by unanimous consent here in the Senate, meaning not a
single Senator voted against it.
In addition, I hope we will soon vote on the Defending the Integrity
of Voting Systems Act, which was introduced by Senators Graham,
Whitehouse, and Blumenthal. This legislation amends the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act to make it easier to federally prosecute individuals who
engage in election interference. It is an important way to protect
voting machines and fight back against those who seek to undermine our
democratic processes. I hope these bills and others like them can
quickly work their way through Congress so we can get them to the
President's desk ahead of the 2020 election.
What we tonight want to do is to centralize our system of local and
State-run elections here in Washington, DC. Actually, one thing we
learned is that the decentralization of our voting process locally and
in the States has been one of the most significant protections against
interference in our elections. But, of course, in addition to our
legislative efforts, we have approved hundreds of millions of dollars
in funding to help States prevent future election interference.
When the American people cast their ballot in 2020, they should be
able to do so with confidence, and that is precisely what we are
working to provide.
We will continue our work to ensure that State, Federal, and local
election officials have the tools and resources they need to safeguard
our efforts and to prevent foreign governments from meddling in our
democratic processes.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
