[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             HONEST ADS ACT

 Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, it has been 1190 days since 
Russia attacked us in 2016, and we have yet to pass comprehensive 
election security reform. The next major elections are just 266 days 
away and primaries are already underway. We must take action now to 
secure our elections from foreign threats. I applaud my Democratic 
colleagues for coming to the floor today to urge the Senate to take 
action.
  Our intelligence officials have repeatedly warned that elections 
remain a target for foreign adversaries and that our election systems 
remain vulnerable. According to a recent joint statement from our 
military and intelligence agencies, the administration warned that 
``Russia, China, Iran and other foreign malicious actors will seek to 
interfere in the voting process or influence voter perceptions.'' Our 
adversaries are emboldened, and we must do more to safeguard our 
elections.
  I have been coming to the floor for years now fighting to get 
comprehensive election security legislation passed because election 
security is national security. While we have made progress and secured 
nearly $1 billion in election security grants for States, we have been 
blocked from passing meaningful legislation that would ensure our 
election systems are resilient in the face of attacks, legislation that 
calls for paper ballots and reliable postelection audits--basic 
requirements that would dramatically improve election security. Despite 
my bipartisan work with Senator Lankford on such legislation, we have 
been repeatedly blocked from bringing it to the floor.
  There are other commonsense bipartisan election security bills that 
have been blocked from the floor. Late last year, I pushed the Senate 
to take action on the Honest Ads Act, my bipartisan legislation with 
Senator Graham that would increase transparency and accountability for 
political ads sold online. The goal is simple: bring our laws into the 
21st century to ensure that voters know who is paying to influence our 
political system. That is a goal every elected official should be 
fighting for, but I was again blocked from offering the legislation on 
the Senate floor.
  We have a common set of facts about how our elections were attacked; 
now we must act with a common purpose to ensure it never happens again. 
This is about our democracy, not about partisanship. The freedom to 
choose our leaders and know with full confidence that those leaders 
were chosen in free and fair elections is something Americans have 
fought and died for since our country was founded. We need to be a 
united front in fighting against those who interfere with our political 
system, and we must do everything in our power to protect our 
elections.

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