[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5153-S5154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I want to thank the leader, Senator 
Schumer from New York, for his introduction of the remarks I am about 
to make. But before I do, let me preface it by saying that I couldn't 
agree with him more. When you take a look at this empty Senate Chamber 
and realize we are in session this week with the possibility of 
bringing important legislation to the floor, you have to ask the 
obvious question: Where is everybody? Why aren't we acting like a 
Senate? Why are we meeting and having speeches instead of debate on 
important legislation? What could be more important than the security 
of an election?

  We have a lot of young people across America. We say to them: 
Register to vote. Your vote makes a difference. You get to choose the 
leaders for this country's future. Be sure and vote.
  But we have to be honest with you. Your vote is under attack--first, 
by apathy--people don't register and they don't vote--and second, by 
outside foreign influence and forces.
  We know what happened 4 years ago in the Presidential election. The 
Russians tried to invade the U.S. electoral process and change it. I 
know it firsthand because it happened first in the State of Illinois. 
Turns out someone put together a computer program that had a little 
opening in it, a little hole, and that is all they needed. Sitting in 
Moscow, these folks in front of computers were searching day in and day 
out for ways to get into the voters' list in Illinois, and they were 
successful. They were successful in invading the voting list, the 
official records of our State on the people who were eligible to vote. 
They could have done some mischievous things. They could have disrupted 
our election. Thank goodness they didn't, but it would have been as 
simple as going through and just changing the addresses, one digit in 
the address of every registered voter, so when that voter came to vote, 
the ID card or information given to the judge at the election place 
wouldn't match up in terms of their address with the official record. 
That meant they would have voted with a provisional ballot, and those 
ballots would have stacked up with the thousands of people who could 
have been victimized by the Russians in my State of Illinois.
  We said very publicly--we were the first State to say publicly: The 
Russians have done this to us.
  We didn't see any changes in the voter file. We knew they had the 
capacity and ability to do it, but they didn't. We have known ever 
since that they have been attacking our electoral process.
  Why didn't we hear about it as much in the most recent election in 
2018? Well, specifically because we were in the circumstance where we 
were fighting it. Our intelligence agencies were fighting it.
  So this is a valid issue, an important issue, and it is one that I 
hope Leader

[[Page S5154]]

Schumer made clear to those listening to this debate. Why won't Senator 
Mitch McConnell bring to the floor of the U.S. Senate election security 
legislation--bipartisan legislation--that will, in the course of 
passing it, make us safer when it comes to our electoral process? What 
is this kind of bromance between the President and Vladimir Putin? I 
don't understand.
  But now there appears to be another party on the scene. Senator 
McConnell is joining in this effort: Keep our hands off of Russia. 
Don't confront Russia. I don't understand why the Senator from Kentucky 
is taking that position. He should be pushing forward on a bipartisan 
basis to protect our election security.
  Madam President, now I see my friend and Republican colleague from 
Utah is here, and I know the purpose of his attendance. I am about to 
make a statement about TPS status for Venezuelans in the United States. 
I will preface it briefly, make my request, and allow the Senator from 
Utah, if he doesn't want to stay here, to respond, and I will continue.
  Last year, I went to Venezuela. It was my first time. I met with 
President Nicolas Maduro, and I said to him: If you have the election 
you plan to have, it will not be credible, and around the world, you 
will find the United States and many other nations will reject the 
outcome. You have to open up the process. Stop putting your political 
opponents in jail. Have a real election, a free election. Venezuela 
needs it, not just from a constitutional viewpoint, but your economy is 
in shambles, and if you want the world to join you in rebuilding the 
Venezuelan economy, you have to be the credible leader and you can't be 
if you go through with this election as planned.
  That was my speech. It didn't work. He had the election as he planned 
it. He made sure that his opponents were under house arrest or in jail. 
He fixed the vote and ended up declaring himself the winner, and no one 
accepted it. So across the world, you find this resistance to his 
leadership.
  There are some 70,000 people from Venezuela in the United States. 
They are here on visitor visas, work visas, student visas, and similar 
capacities. They are now being asked to return to Venezuela. But listen 
to the circumstances: In Venezuela--we know that it is not safe for 
Americans to visit. Senator Menendez has spoken on this issue. He is 
joining me in this effort today. We are warning Americans that it is 
unsafe to visit Venezuela, but we are telling the Venezuelans who are 
in the United States that they have to go back.
  What we are asking for is temporary protected status for these 
Venezuelans to be able to stay in the United States during the pendency 
of this contest that is going on about the future of that nation.
  People are literally starving to death in Venezuela. They have no 
medicine. It is in the worst possible situation. How can we in good 
conscience say to these Venezuelans who are in the United States that 
they have to return?
  So the purpose of my effort today on the floor is to say that we 
should discharge from the Judiciary Committee legislation that allows 
these Venezuelans to stay here while we have declared it so dangerous 
in their home country. It is a rational and thoughtful thing to do, 
although, sadly, the Trump administration has sent me a letter saying 
they don't approve of it.
  It is time for Congress to act. It is time for the Senate to act. I 
am going to make my formal motion at this point because Senator Lee has 
come to the floor.