[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 122 (Thursday, July 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5085-S5087]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 583

  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, we are here to put forward a resolution and 
ask unanimous consent for its adoption. This is the Flake-Coons 
resolution, which Senator Coons will speak on and I will take it from 
there.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I come to the floor with my colleague 
Senator Flake from Arizona to send a strong, clear, and, importantly, a 
bipartisan message to the American people that we stand with the men 
and women of the Department of Justice and the men and women of the 
U.S. intelligence community.
  We support the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in our 
elections, and we must act--and act unequivocally--to hold Russia 
accountable for its actions.
  Just 3 days after the U.S. intelligence community issued a detailed 
and staggering finding that led to an indictment against 12 Russian 
military intelligence officers for interfering in our 2016 election, 
President Trump stood shoulder to shoulder with President Putin and 
failed to challenge Putin's claim that his government played no role in 
the effort to undermine our democracy.
  In fact, when asked, at the time, whether he believed Putin's denial 
or the U.S. intelligence community, President Trump said: ``I have 
confidence in both parties.''
  He has subsequently walked back those comments, but I think it is 
important that the Senate be on the record as saying that our 
intelligence community is clear, our law enforcement community is 
clear, and today the Senate should be clear.
  So today Senator Flake and I are putting forward a resolution that, 
in its language, commends the Department of Justice for its ongoing 
investigation into Russia's interference in our last election--the one 
that led to last week's 11-count indictment, offering the most thorough 
and detailed accounting to date of Russia's complex effort to sow doubt 
and create chaos in the months leading up to our last election.
  The resolution also reaffirms the intelligence community's assessment 
of Russian interference and asserts that Russia must be held to account 
for its actions. This can be accomplished in part by immediately and 
responsibly implementing sanctions provided for in the Countering 
America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, which this body 
passed 98 to 2 this summer.
  Finally, following the President's summit with Putin in Helsinki, 
today's resolution calls for prompt hearings and the release of notes 
to better understand what the two leaders discussed and may have agreed 
to during their one-on-one meeting, which ran for over 2 hours.
  I am encouraged by hearings that have already been scheduled, but I 
think it is important that it be clear that our Senate seeks a role in 
engagement and oversight.
  Congress and the American people deserve to know what promises or 
concessions may have been made to President Putin, and thorough 
hearings with senior officials, including Secretary Pompeo, are 
critical.
  This resolution is a first step--a good first step--but we need to be 
clear-eyed. President Putin of Russia will not stop until we stop him. 
We know we face continued threats to our elections in 2018 and beyond. 
Just last week, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, our former 
colleague here in the Senate, cautioned that the warning lights are 
blinking red again on cyber attacks against our Nation. He said:

       These actions are persistent, they are pervasive, and they 
     are meant to undermine America's Democracy. Attacks on our 
     country's digital infrastructure [are] made principally by 
     Russia.

  He said:

       Russia is the most aggressive foreign actor and the worst 
     offender.

  So we know that we continue to face hostile threats. FBI Director 
Chris Wray said just yesterday: ``Russia is still working to sow 
division in the United States and continues to engage in malign actions 
against our country.''

[[Page S5086]]

  So we need to join arms and look forward to protecting our next 
election. Today's resolution is an important first step, but I think we 
should work together to take up and pass the DETER Act, introduced by 
Senators Rubio and Van Hollen, to deter Russia from interfering in our 
next election.
  I think we should take up and consider the Lankford-Klobuchar Secure 
Elections Act to strengthen election cyber security.
  Of course, I would like to see my Special Counsel Independence and 
Integrity Act taken up as well. We can build on $380 million invested 
in election security, grants provided by this Congress to the States 
back in March to help bolster their election systems against threats.
  It is important to remember that Putin and Putin's Russia are 
attacking other democratic processes throughout Europe. As Americans, 
as Senators, we need to stand up and fight for our democracy and the 
rule of law.
  I had a memorable conversation with the Ukrainian leader last year, 
who said to me: If you don't defend your own elections, your own 
democracy, how can the rest of us count on you to defend ours?
  This resolution makes clear that, on a bipartisan basis, we intend to 
defend our democracy. Russia's attacks on our last elections where 
attacks on every American--Republicans and Democrats. The threat is 
great, it is pressing, and it demands that we act.
  Today's resolution is a first step and an important one, and I call 
on my colleagues to join us in supporting it. If there is any Senator 
who disagrees with this very basic resolution, I look forward to 
hearing their reasons.
  Let me close by thanking my colleague and friend Senator Flake, from 
Arizona, for having taken the initiative and the lead in introducing 
this important resolution. We may not agree on everything, but we agree 
on this important principle: We should stand up and be counted in 
defense of our democracy.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Delaware, Mr. 
Coons, for helping to get together and working on this resolution and 
for working with his colleagues.
  I hope that we can pass it today. There may be an objection to moving 
forward. If there is, we will bring it back again and again. This needs 
to be passed. The Senate needs to speak here.
  Mr. President, in his dystopian novel ``1984,'' George Orwell wrote:

       The party told you to reject the evidence with your eyes 
     and ears. It was their most final, essential command.

  Well, what we saw on air this week in Helsinki was truly an Orwellian 
moment. What we saw earlier this week in Helsinki is what happens when 
you wage war on objective reality for nearly 2 solid years, calling 
real things fake and fake things real, as if conditioning others to 
embrace the same confusion. Ultimately, you are rendered unable to tell 
the difference between the two and are at critical times seemingly 
rendered incapable of thinking clearly--your mind a hash of conspiracy 
theory and fragments of old talking points deployed in response to a 
question no one even asked. Ultimately, you fail to summon reality in 
the face of a despot in defense of your country.
  It wasn't a hard question. An American President was invited by a 
reporter to denounce the Russian attacks on our elections and, in doing 
so, to defend the country that he was elected to lead. This should have 
been not much of a test at all for any American President. Yet it was, 
and our President failed that test.
  The findings of our intelligence community regarding the Russian 
aggression are not matters of opinion, no matter how powerful and 
strong Putin's denial. To reject these findings and to reject the 
excruciatingly specific indictment against the 12 named Russian 
operatives in deference to the word of a KGB apparatchik is an act of 
will on the part of the President.
  That choice now leaves us contemplating a dark mystery: Why did he do 
that? What would compel our President to do such a thing?
  Those are questions that urgently beg for an answer, and it is our 
job to find that answer. But what isn't a mystery is that, by choosing 
to reject objective reality in Helsinki, the President let down the 
free world by giving aid and comfort to an enemy of democracy. In so 
doing, he dimmed the light of freedom ever so slightly in our own 
country. Such is the power that we vest in the Presidency. Such are the 
consequences when a President does not use that power well.
  I can add no further to the extraordinary and thoroughly justified 
response of my fellow Americans from across the political spectrum to 
the events in Helsinki, ranging from heartbreak to horror. But I will 
say that if ever there was a moment to think of not just your party but 
for the country, this is it. This is not a moment for spin, deflection, 
justification, circling the wagons, forgetting, moving on to the next 
news cycle, or for more of Orwell's doublespeak. No, when the American 
Government offers an onslaught on unreality, it puts the whole world at 
risk.
  That is the lesson of Helsinki. That is the dose of reality that hit 
hard. We have indulged myths and fabrications and pretended that it 
wasn't so bad, and our indulgence got us the capitulation in Helsinki.
  We in the Senate who have been elected to represent our constituents 
cannot be enablers of falsehoods. This bipartisan resolution from the 
Senator from Delaware and me, which we have here today, commends the 
Department of Justice for its thorough investigation that has led to 
the indictment of 12 Russian operatives who on behalf of the Russian 
Government interfered in the 2016 election. It acknowledges that such 
efforts by the Russian Government to undermine our elections, as 
confirmed by our own Director of National Intelligence, continue.
  Specifically, the Flake-Coons resolution rejects the denial of 
election interference by Russian President Vladimir Putin, something 
that our President failed to do when given the opportunity in a public 
forum in Helsinki on Monday.
  This resolution calls for the full and immediate implementation of 
mandatory sanctions, passed by a vote of 98 to 2, to deter and punish 
election interference by the Russian Government.
  If there are waivers that are needed--and there are some needed for 
the Indian Government, for example, for weapons they purchased from the 
Russian Government or for hardware--there is a waiver process already 
in law for that, and I would support that.
  Finally, the resolution calls on the relevant committees of the 
Senate to exercise oversight, including prompt hearings and obtaining 
relevant notes and information to understand what commitments were made 
by the President in the summit and the impact it will have on our 
foreign policy going forward.
  The Russian Ambassador last night said that ``important verbal 
agreements were made.'' We need to know the details of those 
agreements.
  Empirical, objective truth has taken a beating for the last 18 
months. I said from this pulpit in January that ``the dissemination of 
untruths has the effect of eroding trust in our vital institutions and 
conditioning the public to no longer trust them.''
  As we saw in Helsinki on Monday, entertaining the untruths of a 
dictator has the same effect. Passing this resolution will let our 
constituents, the administration, our allies, and our adversaries know 
that here in the Senate we do not entertain the deceit of dictators.
  The truth is that Russia interfered in our elections in 2016, and 
these efforts continue. Accepting that truth is the first step in 
preparing us to confront this malign activity. Let's pass this 
resolution.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
consideration of S. Res. 583, submitted earlier today. I ask unanimous 
consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, 
and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the 
table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The majority whip.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me 
first thank the Senator from Arizona and

[[Page S5087]]

the Senator from Delaware for expressing all of our concern about 
Russian interference in the 2016 election. It is absolutely clear they 
did, and the President has said as much on a number of occasions.
  Now, I agree, in Helsinki he was less than clear about that, but he 
came back and said that he misspoke and reaffirmed his earlier position 
that, yes, the Russian Government had attempted to interfere in the 
election, although nobody disputes the fact that they were unsuccessful 
in changing a single vote or affecting the outcome. Ironically, the 
very same investigation which has made clear that the Russians did 
attempt to disrupt the election has also made clear there is no 
evidence of collusion that anybody has uncovered to date.

  My concern with this resolution is that it is purely a symbolic act, 
and what we need to do is not just offer symbolic resolutions on the 
floor. We need to do the hard work Senators have to do through regular 
order. In other words, our committees that have jurisdiction over these 
issues ought to be permitted to call the witnesses and ask the hard 
questions and develop the record before we go on record as to a 
resolution like this.
  I would point out that the indictments that were referred to, 
apparently, according to published reports, Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy 
Attorney General, asked the President before Helsinki if he should 
withhold the announcement of those indictments or go ahead and release 
them before the summit. The President said: No, go ahead.
  Anybody who read the 29 pages of the indictment, issued at the 
request of Robert Mueller by a grand jury in the District of Columbia, 
knows there is chapter and verse of how Russians attempted to interfere 
with the election. It is a good and important read. The President knew 
that before he went to Helsinki. That gives me some confidence that he 
did, indeed, misspeak, especially in light of his subsequent 
affirmations of Russian interference in the election.
  I happen to be privileged to sit on the Senate Select Committee on 
Intelligence. We have been conducting a bipartisan investigation of the 
Russian matter for the entire time the President has been in office for 
the last year and a half. We already issued some preliminary reports. 
The way to do our work is through bipartisan committee work--have the 
witnesses come and testify, ask them hard questions, and render our 
judgment.
  I know Secretary Pompeo is coming before the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee sometime next week. He ought to be asked hard questions. I am 
confident he will respond to those questions. That is how we get the 
information we need.
  Let me just say that I think we should consider sanctions--not some 
sort of sense-of-the Senate resolutions that have no sting or no 
impact, certainly no deterrent effect on what we all want, which is to 
discourage Russian involvement in our 2018 elections. That is why the 
majority leader today asked the chairman of the Banking and Foreign 
Relations Committee to hold hearings and recommend additional measures 
that could respond to or deter Russian malign behavior. We ought to do 
our work through our committees of jurisdiction.
  When we rush to judgment and do resolutions like this, we can 
inadvertently make mistakes. Let me point out one that is in this 
resolution. There is a reference to Countering America's Adversaries 
Through Sanctions Act, which passed the Senate 98 to 2, to deter and 
punish election interference by the Russian Federation. There is a 
provision in the current conference committee on the Defense 
authorization that would issue a waiver of that act to our partner 
India. If we want to encourage countries like India to come partner 
with the United States of America--the world's largest democracy and 
the world's oldest democracy--then we ought encourage that movement 
toward us and away from the Russian Federation. I worry there is no 
reference in here to the waiver provision in the Defense authorization 
conference committee that India has asked for and that Secretary Mattis 
has requested Congress grant.
  All I am asking for is a little bit of caution in the rush to issue a 
resolution. No. 1, I don't think we acknowledge the full picture, but 
we also don't commit our work to the committees that have jurisdiction 
over these matters to do it carefully, thoughtfully, and in a 
bipartisan way so we come up to the best solution to the problem.
  I think this is the wrong way to go about it. I think our committees 
ought to continue to do their work--Senate Select Committee on 
Intelligence, the Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and the Banking Committee. We ought to come up with the 
right kind of bipartisan answer, which I think could well include 
sanctions against the Russian Federation to deter them from meddling in 
our 2018 elections and beyond. I am confident they will continue until 
we stop them from doing so.
  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. FLAKE. Madam President, I think it is regrettable this was 
objected to. We will bring it back. The majority leader said this is 
just a symbolic vote. It is. Symbolism is important.
  Obviously, we have underlying sanctions we ought to fully implement. 
If there are waivers needed, there is already a waiver process in the 
NDAA authorization. I support those waivers with regard to India. This 
does not affect that. This says, in a symbolic way, that we in the 
Senate don't buy Vladimir Putin's rejection or his denial of election 
interference.
  That was put in question this week, whether our government believes 
that or not. We in the Senate should stand and say: We don't believe 
it. We know the intelligence is right. We stand behind our intelligence 
community. We need to say that in the Senate.
  Yes, it is symbolic and symbolism is important. Our agencies of 
government need to know that we stand behind them. That is what this is 
about.
  I hope we will pass this. I note, regretfully, that there has been an 
objection to it, but we will bring it back. I believe this should pass, 
and I believe it ultimately will pass.
  I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that 
notwithstanding Senate rule XXII, postcloture time on the Bounds 
nomination expire at 1:45 p.m. today; further, that if confirmed, the 
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and 
the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.