September 16, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 160 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page S5619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Russia

  Madam President, now, on Russian disinformation, another matter, the 
chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
continues to further his probe into the family of the former Vice 
President and plans to release a report next week that appears designed 
to influence the upcoming Presidential election.
  While the rest of the country has been focused on fighting the global 
pandemic, for the last few months, the chairman and Republicans of the 
committee have wasted taxpayer resources to run a hit job on President 
Trump's political rival. Even worse, it seems that several lines of 
investigation have echoed materials pushed by the Kremlin.
  In fact, some of the allegations that the Homeland Security chairman 
pursues are the same ones propagated by Andriy Derkach, a known Russian 
agent who was recently sanctioned by President Trump's own Department 
of the Treasury for interfering in our election. So here President 
Trump's Department of the Treasury sanctions Derkach, and the chairman 
of the committee repeats the same kind of discredited allegations that 
Derkach propagates. It is outrageous. It is a disgrace.
  The hearings and subpoenas that have come out of the Homeland 
Security Committee are also a disgrace by any standard. The more we 
learn about Russian agents like Mr. Derkach, the more it looks like the 
Kremlin is trying to launder anti-American information through the U.S. 
Senate, and because Moscow prefers to support Donald Trump, as it did 
in the last election, it seems that some of this disinformation finds a 
sympathetic audience among Republican Senators.
  So today, alongside Senators Wyden, Peters, Reed, and Feinstein, I 
will be introducing a resolution calling for a cessation of any Senate 
investigation or activity that allows Congress to act as a conduit for 
Russian information. There should not be a single aspect of this 
Chamber that, wittingly or unwittingly, furthers the propaganda machine 
of Vladimir Putin's intelligence services.
  I will have more to say on this matter later, but for one of the most 
important committees to be echoing a Kremlin-backed conspiracy theory 
is beyond the pale. As we are about to hold a national election, it 
must stop immediately.