[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 130 (Wednesday, July 31, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5212-S5213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Election Security
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as those who are following on C-SPAN have
probably noted, we are not overwhelmed with business on the floor of
the U.S. Senate, nor have we been during the course of this year.
We have considered several bills--you could count them on one hand--
including the Defense authorization bill, and, of course, the
momentous, historic legislation 2 weeks ago, the tax treaty with
Luxembourg, which had been pending before the U.S. Senate for 9 years.
It finally made it to the floor of the Senate. That was the highlight
of the week, as we have watched the U.S. Senate ignore some of the most
important issues of our time.
Let me tell you one that strikes at the heart of our democracy, which
we should be focused on today and until it is resolved. Last week,
former FBI Director and Special Counsel Bob Mueller testified before
the House Judiciary Committee about his report on Russian interference
in the 2016 election. The hearing clarified several important things.
For example, President Trump loves to claim that the Mueller report
completely exonerated him. Trump's tweets, one after another, talk
about how he was exonerated by that report. Director Mueller made clear
that is ``not what the report said.''
When asked by the House Judiciary chairman ``Did you actually totally
exonerate the President?'' Director Mueller answered ``no.''
President Trump likes to say the Mueller investigation was a witch
hunt. He has said that about 1,000 times. But the investigation
actually led to 37 indictments and over $42 million in assets forfeited
to the government. If this were a witch hunt, it certainly found a lot
of wealthy witches.
Some Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee tried to
attack Director Mueller's credibility, but Mueller has a lifetime
record of being a straight shooter, by-the-book investigator, and
prosecutor. He did this country a service when he took on the role of
special counsel.
One thing Director Mueller tried to remind the American people of is
the reason the investigation was necessary. He said:
Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of
challenges to our democracy. The Russian government's effort
to interfere in our election is among the most serious.
Mueller went on to say: ``This deserves the attention of every
American.''
One of the most important takeaways from the Mueller report is that
Russia did successfully attack our democracy in 2016. Page 1 of the
Mueller report says: ``The Russian Government interfered in the 2016
presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.''
The report detailed numerous examples, including an ``intelligence-
gathering mission'' that employees of the Internet Research Agency,
known as the IRA, took in June of 2014.
The IRA was the Russian troll farm that waged information warfare
against the 2016 election by using stolen identities, fake social media
accounts, and fake campaign events.
The Mueller report and the earlier indictment of several IRA
employees noted that two of the Russians arrived in the United States
for a 3-week trip ``for the purpose of collecting intelligence to
inform the [IRA's] operations.''
The report also detailed the Russians' attack on my own home State
board of elections. In July 2016, the Illinois State board of elections
discovered that it was the target of a malicious, month-long cyber
attack that enabled the intruder to access confidential voter
information and view the registration data of approximately 76,000
voters in my State of Illinois.
These efforts to influence the election and attack campaign
organizations and State and local election administrators and vendors
continue to this day. What are we going to do about it?
What has been the response so far of the U.S. Senate, the body sworn
to uphold the Constitution and to protect against enemies, foreign and
domestic? Nothing. We are too busy with the trade treaty with
Luxembourg to deal with Russian interference in our elections. In the
face of Russia's threat to our elections, this Senate has been quiet as
a graveyard.
Let's start in 2016. Top officials from the administration's national
security and intelligence community came and warned congressional
leadership of Russia's ongoing attack on our elections, rightly asking
for a bipartisan statement to tell Russian dictator Putin to stop. What
was Senate Majority Leader McConnell's response to this obvious request
to protect our Nation? He said: No thanks. I am not going to do it.
History will no doubt look back in infamy at that decision.
What about the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a historically
recognized body with key jurisdiction over Russian attacks on the
United States? That committee did not even conduct an investigation
into Russia's actions in the last Congress.
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Republicans were silent when Trump repeatedly accepted Russian
dictator Vladimir Putin's brazen denials over American intelligence
experts and all of the evidence to the contrary.
They were silent again after the Mueller report's devastating
findings of Russian interference. And they were silent when President
Trump subsequently said he would gladly accept election help from a
foreign power again.
Now look at the current Congress. Several bipartisan bills have been
introduced to respond to this Russian threat, including the Election
Security Act. This is a critical, comprehensive bill that would provide
States with much needed resources and establish a robust Federal effort
to protect our democracy.
Unfortunately, Republican Senate Leader McConnell is blocking all
efforts to bring this important legislation to the floor for a debate
and vote. This legislation could thwart Russian interference in the
2020 election. Senator McConnell refuses to bring it to the floor.
I end with the questions I have asked before here on the floor: How
can the party of Ronald Reagan continue to sit by while this President
pursues policies aligned with the former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin? Why
didn't the first bills in this new Senate under Republican control deal
with this threat to the election process in our democracy? Why isn't
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee holding urgent hearings on these
stunning dalliances between an American President and a Russian
dictator? Why isn't the Senate Foreign Relations Committee moving
bipartisan legislation that would protect U.S. membership in NATO?
Quite frankly, we barely do anything in this legislative graveyard of
the Senate under Republican control. You would think we would at least
focus, on a bipartisan basis, on making certain that the outcome of the
next election is not influenced by a foreign power, whether it is
Russia or some other malicious force in the world today.
But because it bruises the President's ego and it may invoke a nasty
tweet, the Republican-controlled Senate prefers to do nothing. It is
time for the Republican majority to stop protecting President Trump at
all costs.
There reaches a point when the Senate Republican leadership needs to
put the country before fear of the President's tweets.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.