[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 181 (Friday, December 16, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ELECTORS MUST BE BRIEFED BY INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ON ACTIVITIES OF 
 ENTITIES ALLIED WITH GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIA UNDERTAKEN TO INFLUENCE THE 
                 OUTCOME OF 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 16, 2016

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the House 
Committee on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee; ranking 
member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland 
Security, and Investigations, I rise today in support of the request of 
several Presidential Electors to be briefed by the Intelligence 
Communities regarding the activities of the Government of Russia to 
influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
  Further, since this information bears directly on the decision to be 
made by the Electors, it must be provided to them before they are 
required to assemble in the several state capitals to cast their votes.
  Mr. Speaker, the linchpin of representative democracies such as the 
United States is public confidence in the political system, regime, and 
community.
  That confidence in turn rests upon the extent to which the public has 
faith that the system employed to select its leaders accurately 
reflects its preferences.
  At bottom, this means that all citizens casting a vote have a 
fundamental right and reasonable expectation that the votes cast count 
and are counted.
  This means that the American people must be able to freely elect 
their leaders without interference, covert or overt, from foreign 
governments or entities allied with foreign powers.
  As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist Paper No. 68, ``On the 
Mode of Electing the President,'' the Constitution reposes in each 
person chosen to serve as an Elector the sacred trust of disregarding 
the `talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity,' and 
instead selecting as President the person who is in the most `eminent 
degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.'
  The facts related to the activities of the Government of Russia to 
influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election bear directly 
on the decision to be made by the Electors and thus should be made 
known to them before they are required to assemble in the several state 
capitals to cast their votes.
  In Federalist Paper No. 68, Alexander Hamilton warned that one of the 
``most deadly adversaries of republican government arises `chiefly from 
the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our 
councils' and points out that there is no better way to achieve this 
objective than `than by raising a creature of their own to [be 
President], the chief magistracy of the Union.'
  To guard against foreign machinations of this sort, the Constitution 
entrusted the selection of the President to Electors, `persons, 
selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, most likely to 
possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated 
investigations' as choice of President.
  Given the gravity and consequences of the decision they are to make, 
it is essential that information they deem material to their 
deliberations should and must be provided to them.
  In this instance, that means being briefed by the Intelligence 
Community prior to December 19, 2016 regarding the activities of 
entities allied with the Government of Russia undertaken to influence 
the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

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