[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 167 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5937-S5938]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Election Security Act

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Mueller report made crystal clear that 
the Russian Government interfered in the Presidential election of the 
United States of America in the year 2016. They called it a ``sweeping 
and systematic fashion'' of interference.
  I know this better than some because, in my home State of Illinois, 
the Russian intelligence service literally hacked into our State Board 
of Elections' voter file and gained access to a database containing 
information on millions of voters in my State. Then the Russians 
extracted the data on thousands of those voters. They also targeted 
other State election authorities, county governments, and election 
equipment and technology vendors.
  Federal law enforcement and intelligence officers have repeatedly 
warned us that these interference efforts will continue into the 
election of 2020. In fact, former KGB Agent Vladimir Putin recently 
mocked us and openly joked that Russia would definitely interfere again 
in the U.S. elections. Congress cannot sit back and ignore this threat. 
We must take action to help State and local election officials prepare 
for the 2020 elections and those beyond.
  I am pleased that the leader, Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, finally 
relented on his opposition to any further funding to assist State and 
local election officials with election security efforts. Yet the $250 
million included in the fiscal year 2020 Financial Services and General 
Government appropriations bill is clearly inadequate. We need to boldly 
invest in our election security. It is literally the cornerstone of our 
democracy, and we need to provide sustained funding to State and local 
election officials so they may respond

[[Page S5938]]

to these threats that are far beyond any State's capacity to deal with.
  There are 40 of us who cosponsored the Election Security Act that 
Senator Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, introduced in May. I was proud to 
join her as one of the original cosponsors.
  The legislation would provide critical resources to election 
officials through an initial $1 billion investment in our election 
infrastructure, followed by $175 million every 2 years for 
infrastructure maintenance. It would also require the use of voter-
verified paper ballots, strengthen the Federal response to election 
interference, and establish accountability measures for election 
technology vendors.
  Let me bring this down to Earth in simple words. If we cannot trust 
the outcome of an election to accurately reflect the feelings of those 
in America, we have lost the cornerstone of our democracy. There are 
nations, including Russia, that have proven they are doing everything 
in their power to stop us from having safe, accurate election counts.
  The question for this Senate and for this Congress is, Do we care? Do 
we care enough to spend the resources so our States can protect the 
integrity of voters? I am not just talking about blue States from the 
Democratic side of the aisle. Every State, red and blue alike, would 
benefit from this legislation. If the Republicans want to demonstrate 
that they are joining us in putting country over party, they should 
join us today and protect our democracy by passing this legislation.
  I have been asked to make a unanimous consent request at this point 
before I finish my remarks, and I thank the Senator from Louisiana for 
being on the floor.