[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3338-S3339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Election Security

  Mr. President, on another matter, there has been a lot of discussion 
since the election of 2016 about election security, and correctly so. 
With the first primary of the 2020 election being only 8 months away, 
there could not be a more critical time to discuss the work that has 
been done since 2016 to secure our Nation's election infrastructure.
  There has been a lot of focus over the last 2\1/2\ years on what 
exactly did and did not happen in 2016. We know there was a lot of 
meddling by Russian state actors who tried to sow discord and confusion 
and pit American against American through the use of social media and 
propaganda. There is one piece of information that has remained 
perfectly clear--and it is of some comfort to me--which is that no 
votes were actually changed or altered, but we can't assume this will 
be the case in the future. What we did see was a concerted effort by 
the Russian Government to infiltrate our systems and sow division and 
discord among Americans, as the Presiding Officer knows, which was the 
conclusion reached by the intelligence community assessment in January 
of 2017, which was supported by the Senate Intelligence Committee's 
unclassified summary of that assessment last summer, and which was 
again reiterated in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's recent report.
  I don't want to mince words on this point. Any attempt, successful or 
unsuccessful, to interfere with our elections is unacceptable and would 
severely undermine our self-government and our Democratic values.

[[Page S3339]]

  Across the Federal Government, there was an immediate effort to 
prevent what happened in 2016 from repeating itself in 2018. The 
Intelligence Committee began investigating measures taken by the 
Russian Government in 2016 to find out, one, what happened, and, two, 
how we can prevent that from happening in the future.
  While there was evidence of continued disinformation campaigns, the 
Intelligence Community found that 2018 was largely interference-free. 
Again, we can't assume that will be the case going forward, but 2018, 
thankfully, was largely interference-free. That was the conclusion of 
the FBI Director, Chris Wray, but he called 2018 ``a dress rehearsal 
for the big show,'' and that is the 2020 Presidential election.
  We have to continue to work to strengthen our efforts to protect our 
elections, and I believe we are already doing some good work in the 
Senate to accomplish exactly that. Just last week we passed the 
Defending Elections against Trolls from Enemy Regimes Act, or the DETER 
Act. This legislation was introduced by our colleagues Senator Graham 
and Senator Durbin, and it sends an important message to foreign 
governments that attempts to meddle in our elections will not be 
tolerated.
  That legislation makes individuals who have done that--who have 
attempted to interfere in our elections--categorically inadmissible to 
the United States.
  It passed by unanimous consent here in the Senate, meaning not a 
single Senator voted against it.
  In addition, I hope we will soon vote on the Defending the Integrity 
of Voting Systems Act, which was introduced by Senators Graham, 
Whitehouse, and Blumenthal. This legislation amends the Computer Fraud 
and Abuse Act to make it easier to federally prosecute individuals who 
engage in election interference. It is an important way to protect 
voting machines and fight back against those who seek to undermine our 
democratic processes. I hope these bills and others like them can 
quickly work their way through Congress so we can get them to the 
President's desk ahead of the 2020 election.
  What we tonight want to do is to centralize our system of local and 
State-run elections here in Washington, DC. Actually, one thing we 
learned is that the decentralization of our voting process locally and 
in the States has been one of the most significant protections against 
interference in our elections. But, of course, in addition to our 
legislative efforts, we have approved hundreds of millions of dollars 
in funding to help States prevent future election interference.
  When the American people cast their ballot in 2020, they should be 
able to do so with confidence, and that is precisely what we are 
working to provide.
  We will continue our work to ensure that State, Federal, and local 
election officials have the tools and resources they need to safeguard 
our efforts and to prevent foreign governments from meddling in our 
democratic processes.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.