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[Pages S4653-S4654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ELECTION SECURITY
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, this
week,
[[Page S4654]]
officials from the intelligence community, the FBI, and the Department
of Homeland Security will brief us on foreign efforts to influence our
politics and elections and how the administration is defending us.
Every one of our colleagues should attend one of these sessions.
Sharing sensitive threat information with Congress is just one of the
ways this administration has outperformed its predecessor. The
intelligence community kept Congress much more closely informed about
these threats in 2018 and now in 2020 than it did in the runup to 2016.
I am sure these briefings will contain details that might seem ripe for
cherry-picking and partisan leaks from both sides, but it is essential
that Congress remain a place where the word ``classified'' actually
means something. Leaking intelligence jeopardizes sources and methods.
If we learned anything from studying Russian interference in 2016, it
is that our adversaries' ultimate objective is to leave America more
divided and less confident in our institutions. Members of Congress
must take special care not to do Putin's work for him.
Foreign adversaries have long sought to interfere in our politics and
elections. That didn't start in 2016, and it will not end in 2020, but
this administration has put us in a far, far better position than in
2016. There is, simply, no comparison. The intelligence community is
better aware of the threat. Government agencies are more transparent
with Congress, the State and local jurisdictions that actually run
elections, the private sector, and the public.
In 2016, the Obama-Biden administration had to lean on congressional
leadership to act as a bridge to the States because the States so
distrusted their Department of Homeland Security. Over the last 4
years, this administration's DHS has develop its own deep relationship
with State officials. In 2016, only 14 State or local jurisdictions had
received high-tech Albert sensors to alert them to cyber intrusions.
They are deployed in all 50 States today. There were 14 States that had
them in 2016, and every State has them today. It was this
administration that stood up the new Elections Infrastructure
Information Sharing and Analysis Center, with participation from more
than 2,600 local jurisdictions and counting.
This administration has imposed real, hard costs on election
interference and Russia's other misdeeds: shuttering the Kremlin's
consulates in San Francisco and Seattle; kicking out intelligence
officers; sanctioning oligarchs; helping European partners defend their
own elections against Russia; and sending weapons to Ukraine and
Georgia, which the Obama-Biden administration did not supply.
This administration has also confronted China for what the State
Department described as ``massive espionage and influence operations,''
including closing Beijing's consulate in Houston.
As the Democratic vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee
stated in 2016, ``We were caught flatfooted.'' Not anymore. Congress
has provided more than $800 million for States and localities to shore
up election security and has passed a number of targeted new laws.
Since foreign political interference is so often aimed at private
sector platforms, like social media sites, we have encouraged those
businesses to step up vigilance as well.
Through all of this, we have also carefully avoided things that look
like quick fixes but which would undermine our own institutions. In the
United States of America, it is the States and localities, not the
Federal Government, that run elections--period. Our lack of a one-size-
fits-all national system isn't just constitutionally appropriate; it
also acts as a further safeguard. We lack a single point of failure
So, in closing, I urge all of our colleagues to attend these
important briefings with an eye toward our real adversaries--not our
fellow Americans but the foreign agents who love to see us at one
another's throats.
Back during the impeachment trial, a leading House Democrat asserted
that, if President Trump were to win reelection, the people's vote
would be presumptively invalid.
Just a few days ago, it was reported that a leading Democratic
strategist who was war-gaming this election decided to experiment with
what would happen if Vice President Biden were to lose the election but
were to, simply, fail to concede.
Once again, this kind of recklessness achieves our adversaries'
missions for them. So I urge my colleagues to listen to the civil
servants who are defending our democracy. Let's stay united, focus on
the real dangers posed by foreign intelligence, and resist the urge to
politicize these vital subjects.
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