[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 79 (Monday, May 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Foreign Election Interference

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, Secretary of State Pompeo will meet 
with Vladimir Putin tomorrow, and there is something important he must 
do.
  The Mueller report, for all its revelations about the President's 
conduct, also reminded us of things we know to be true and must resist 
at all costs. The Mueller report documented the ``sweeping and 
systematic'' disinformation campaign directed by President Putin to 
undermine our 2016 elections. Whatever you may think of the President's 
behavior, foreign interference in our elections cannot be ignored.
  It was an attack on democracy itself, and in my view, America's 
response has not been adequate. What happened in the past has happened, 
as bad as it was, but the point of looking at this is to prevent it 
from ever happening again in the future. We don't know what country 
will try to change our elections and who it might support--Russia, 
China, Iran, North Korea. So we have to bolster ourselves, and until we 
get a full, full description of what happened and a plan to stop it 
from happening in 2020, America should not rest because it is an attack 
on democracy itself.
  America's response, thus far, has not been adequate. Congress passed 
sanctions, but then President Trump failed to implement some and 
watered others down. Only a few months ago, the Treasury Department cut 
a sweetheart deal on sanctions relief for Russian oligarch and Putin 
crony Oleg Deripaska.
  Even rhetorically, the President and members of his administration 
have shown an unbelievable willingness to look past President Putin's 
actions of 2016. A little over a week ago, just after the Mueller 
report came out, President Trump held a phone call with President Putin 
in which he reportedly brought up the Russian hoax, and he did not warn 
Putin not to meddle in our elections. Of course, the press conference 
in Helsinki last year was the epitome of President Trump's inability to 
confront President Putin about his interference in our elections.
  This matters a great deal because any softness on the 
administration's part will be read by Putin and other foreign powers as 
an invitation to try and interfere with our elections again. We know, 
thanks to the testimony from FBI Director Wray and our national 
intelligence chiefs, that foreign adversaries are gearing up right now 
to try again and interfere with our elections in 2020. Yet it may not 
be just Russia next time; it might be China, North Korea, or Iran. Who 
knows?
  So it is long past time for the Trump administration to make it 
crystal clear that another interference campaign by Putin will not be 
tolerated. The Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, has an obligation to 
warn President Putin that any action to interfere in our elections will 
be met with an immediate and robust response. Secretary of State Pompeo 
must make clear that the cost of trying to interfere with American 
elections will be dear. Secretary of State Pompeo must deliver a shot 
across the bow to Putin and any other foreign adversary who would dare 
think about trying to influence our elections. Anything else from 
Secretary Pompeo will be a failure of diplomacy.
  Here in Congress, our response must also be strong. In the wake of 
multiple warnings about future election interference, we must do 
everything we can to harden our election infrastructure before 2020. 
There are multiple bills--bipartisan, sponsored by Democrats and 
Republicans--that are in committee right now that would do just that, 
but Leader McConnell will not commit to bringing them to the floor, 
which is another example of his legislative graveyard. Instead, he just 
schedules nomination after nomination. This is now the third week in a 
row that the Senate will spend processing only nominations. Leader 
McConnell is, slowly but surely, changing the Chamber into a 
legislative graveyard, where even the most urgently needed, bipartisan 
bills on election security and Russia sanctions get buried.