Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Rules Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 1562 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the Warner substitute at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am deeply disappointed that the majority has rejected this request before I can even lay out why I think it is needed. My request was to take up and pass the filed S. 1562, as amended.

This legislation is pretty simple, even for this body. It would require that any Presidential campaign that receives offers of assistance from an agent of a foreign government have an obligation to report that offer of assistance to law enforcement--specifically the

Mr. President, I thank my friend, the Senator from New York, the minority leader, and I agree with him.

This is really unfortunate timing. I can't imagine--I always thought that in today's political environment, you always think yesterday's could be the greatest outrage, but the fact that yesterday, the President of the United States said--after all that we have gone through in the last 2\1/2\ years, after all of the evidence of Russian intervention has been out and vetted, after 140 contacts between Russian officials and folks affiliated with the Trump campaign or Trump business operations, you would think there would be a sense of some level of moral obligation, even if we are not backward-looking, to say that on a going-forward basis, we ought to make clear that if any foreign power tries to intervene again in an election, the least we can do is ask for a requirement to report it to law enforcement.

(Mr. CRAMER assumed the Chair.)

I heard yesterday the President went on and kind of said: Oh, it is no big thing; everybody does it.

No, Mr. President, everybody doesn't do it.

The Presiding Officer who just left the chair--I have no question in my mind that if a foreign power tried to intervene in his campaign, he would report it to law enforcement. All evidence in the past of attempted foreign intervention--candidates stepped up--it didn't matter which party--and did the right thing and reported it to law enforcement.

One of my colleagues on the other side said that they don't want to relitigate 2016. There will be other times and places to further litigate whatever happened in 2016. In terms of today, I don't want to, either. I just want to make sure that we are safe from foreign intervention in 2020. What is remarkable is that we now live in a world post-9/11 that dramatically changed things for a whole host of us. We have a whole series of new--appropriately so--security at our airports. The mantra at our airports that TSA and Homeland Security always try to promote is ``If you see something, say something.'' It is not an undue burden, I think, on the traveling public, and because of that involvement, I think the airports are safer. Shouldn't we have the same de minimis standard to protect the integrity of our election system? If you see something, say something.

All my legislation is requiring is this: If there is indication that agents of foreign governments are trying to intervene in our elections, tell law enforcement. Tell the FBI.

I tried to draft my legislation in ways to make sure it wouldn't involve any of our activities in an official sense. It wouldn't involve dealings at Embassy parties, and it wouldn't involve contacts in the normal course.

I would say to my friends on the other side, if there are ways to improve this legislation to make sure we can reach agreement on what I have to believe is common agreement here--that we don't want foreign governments intervening in our Presidential elections--I am wide open as to how we can change this to make it better. But to say, in the face of this President's own FBI Director, who has said it would be important that the FBI have this information about foreign intervention, and then to have the man sitting in the White House saying that his own FBI Director is wrong--I would ask my colleagues, do you agree with Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, about the importance of law enforcement seeing the evidence of foreign intervention, or do you believe it is not a big thing? Now I am anxious to hear a response from my colleagues.

I know there may be questions such as, what about the Steele dossier? That was somewhat of a foreign intervention, Mark. What about the Steele dossier?

Well, that was reported to the FBI. It was given to the FBI in the summer of 2016.

If there are ways we can make sure on a going-forward basis that any of those foreign-based activities are appropriately reported to law enforcement, let's have at it. But to say that we don't think this is important enough or that somehow this issue of the integrity of our election system shouldn't be debated or shouldn't be taken up to put protections in place is frankly astonishing.

It is astonishing to me as well that 17 months out from the next election, we have a White House where there is no one in charge of election security. We are 17 months out from the next election, and we have let sit fallow bipartisan election security legislation that would ensure that there is that paper trail and there is that ability to audit the actions after the fact so we can make sure Americans have faith in the integrity of the election system.

It is pretty remarkable that we are 17 months out from the next election and 3 weeks after we saw manipulation of a video of the Speaker of the House--that clearly was manipulated--that spread a false impression around the country and around the world, and we don't have common agreement on some basic rules of the road so that social media is not manipulated again in 2020 the way it was in 2016. We only need to look at how social media manipulation leads to hate and bloodshed in India and Burma and countries around the world.

Not taking action on these items is the height of irresponsibility. This most basic of all requirements simply says: If you see something, say something. If there is foreign intervention, tell the FBI. Let them make the judgment.

Why would anyone say that is not necessary when we have seen the recent history in our country, and for that matter, we have seen the same tactics Russia has used in America used in the Brexit vote and in the French Presidential elections? Again, I go back to Director of National Intelligence Coats, who said they will be back, and FBI Director Wray, who said they will be back, and they need this information.

I hope that maybe after the weekend, my colleagues on the other side will reconsider and take up this issue.

I will close with this: I just can't imagine--and I know some of my colleagues on the other side have already started to speak out, and I appreciate that. I appreciate their speaking out at a time when there is huge fear of the White House and this President's willingness to take vendettas out against anyone who raises a voice in opposition.

Think for a moment. Think for just a moment about what Donald Trump said yesterday from the Oval Office. A President's words from the Oval Office still carry weight. The President of the United States said: Well, everybody does this. So he would take a look at assistance that might come from Russia or China or some other adversary nation. My goodness gracious. The modern father of the Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, must be spinning in his grave.

Again, Mr. President, I am not here to relitigate 2016. I am here to make sure that we do our job, that we honor that oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I don't know about you, but I would call the actions of Russia over the last few years the actions of a foreign enemy.

We also have an obligation to make sure we protect the integrity of our election system. So let's take off the Republican and Democratic hats for a few minutes, and let's go ahead and pass election security legislation. Let's go ahead and put some basic guardrails around social media so we are not manipulated in future elections. Let's make sure we go ahead and put an obligation on all Presidential campaigns going forward that if they see evidence of foreign intervention, they report it appropriately to the FBI and law enforcement.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I hope to reserve the right, if my colleague from Tennessee is going to respond to my comments, to have a chance to respond to her comments as well.

I see the Senator from the Finance Committee is here. I will not take but a couple of moments.

I appreciate the comments of the Senator from Tennessee. She agrees we ought to make sure there is not foreign intervention in our elections. That ought to be a fairly easy thing to agree to.

I want to point out that her reading of my legislation is not accurate. The only thing that would have to be reported is if an agent of a foreign government or foreign national offered something that was already prohibited, not a foreign national wanting to volunteer on a campaign. We already laid out prohibited activities that violate the law. The only action reported would be those actions that are prohibited.

Again, I will take my colleague at her word. If there are ways to improve on this legislation, I am wide open for business.

I think in past elections, she is right. She ran for Governor. My friend from Iowa has run for a lot of elections. I think most of us in this Chamber would never think about taking help from a foreign government. If there are ways to work better, I welcome it.

We are only here having this discussion and debate because, in a lot of ways, the rules of the game changed in 2016. A foreign power, Russia, caught our government, our political system, and our companies totally off guard. They hacked into the Democratic National Committee's individuals' personal accounts.

I would remind the Presiding Officer of the very day then-Candidate Trump said on national television during the campaign: If the Russians have dirt on Hillary, bring it on. It was the very first day the intelligence community, the Mueller report, and our bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee found out that the Russians actually took him at his word and started releasing information to him that day.

I think the integrity of our election system is terribly important. Russians tried to penetrate 50 States and got into 21 of them. I think they could have changed totals if they wanted to. They chose not to that year.

We have done better in 2018, but I think we can even do more and, again, only for States that want to take additional Federal assistance. That has been the working arrangement with our colleagues from the other side. I know very few folks who wouldn't say that with the ability to have systems hacked into--that are as much different today than it was 20 years ago--having that paper trail after the fact makes a lot of sense. Let's agree to work on that.

We have this whole new beast of social media companies out there that provide a lot of good, but we have seen in repeated ways that they can be manipulated. What we saw in 2016 is going to pale in comparison with the advent of deepfake and other serious incidents. We got caught off guard. We should not be caught off guard in 2020.

I filed this legislation a month ago because I thought we needed to be absolutely clear going forward. The reason for the immediacy of this legislation proposed, and why it is so necessary, is because the President of the United States, yesterday, from the Oval Office, said that everybody in politics takes input from foreign governments. He left everybody with that impression. I don't. I absolutely believe the Senator from Iowa doesn't. He said, even after all that has happened in the last 2\1/2\ years, that if Russia or China or other countries intervene again, he might take that information, take that assistance again.

Our country is better than that. Our democracy is more important than a willingness to be traded away for the short-term political gain of being in cahoots with a foreign power. I am not saying that has happened, but, boy oh boy, what an invitation we made yesterday to folks, as the Senator from Tennessee just indicated, who don't wish us well.

If there are ways to improve on this legislation, I am wide open for that, but if we don't put in place an obligation that is up-to-date and a moral obligation that I think we have all honored, if we don't put in place a legal obligation to make sure that if you see evidence of foreign intervention, you report it, then shame on us.

I will close with this. We do it at the airport--you see something, say something. Shouldn't we have at least those same standards, in terms of protection of our critical democracy, going forward?

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, I would like to articulate the reason for the objection to the legislation from the Senator from Virginia.

Let me begin by saying that we are all for free and fair and honest elections. I know the Senator from Virginia spent some time as Governor of Virginia. He knows that in 2016, no ballots--no ballots--no one's vote was encumbered or affected. He knows that I have served on an election commission, and I know that the Senator from Virginia appreciates that our county election commissions and our State election commissions are in charge of securing those elections.

I have to state to the Presiding Officer that I know that in the great State of Tennessee, our county election commissions and our State election commission and our secretary of state are very focused on making certain that these elections are fair and honest elections. They are going to do that for all elections--local, State, and, of course, in the 2020 Presidential election.

I think a little bit of context is always helpful. First of all, let me say this: I welcome my colleagues across the aisle to the understanding that bad actors have tried for decades--decades--to influence what is going on in our government and in our country.

Indeed, I remember, as a child in 4-H Club--and I think that probably the Presiding Officer was a member of 4-H Club growing up--to me, as a young girl in South Mississippi, the 4-H Club was a wonderful experience. It opened a lot of doors to me. I recall sitting in a 4-H Club meeting at one point, and I heard about communism. I heard about what the Russians and the Communists wanted to do to our freedoms here in this country, and I can recall how frightened I felt when I heard that.

So to my colleagues across the aisle who in 2016 realized that these bad actors--Russia, China, Iran, North Korea; people I call the new axis of evil--did not wish us well, I am so pleased to know that they have come to this realization that they indeed do not wish us well. My hope is that, in a bipartisan way, we can move forward and make certain we do not allow these bad actors to in any way impede our freedoms or infringe on our government.

Now, specific to the UC that was presented to us, this would require a Presidential campaign and all employees to report their contacts with foreign nationals in which they discuss a contribution, donation, or expenditure, such as an ad, or coordination, collaboration, providing information, providing services, or persistent and repeated contact with a government or a foreign country or a foreign agent thereof.

This is what it all means. These reporting requirements are overbroad. Presidential campaigns would have to worry about disclosure at a variety of levels, so many different levels. Consider vendors who work for a campaign, people who are supplying some kind of good or service to a campaign. It would include those vendors, including all the service contracts. It would apply to door-knockers, it would apply to phone-bankers--down to any person who shares their views with a candidate.

I want to make sure that everybody hears that. Any person who shares their views with a candidate would be reportable. Think about that. Think about what that would cause. With this law, it would be prudent for every campaign contact to start with these words: Before you tell me anything, are you a foreign national?

We have the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Campaign finance law makes it illegal to take contributions or coordinate expenditures with foreign nationals without a green card. We have public official ethics laws.

Campaigns could have to report social media responses or interactions, report every non-U.S. citizen, or even every Dreamer. We hear a lot about the Dreamers. So think about this. You would report every non-U.S. citizen or Dreamer who volunteers for your campaign or knocks on doors or even knocks on the door of a foreign national.

Every vendor contact, every call center, every contract, every discussion--all of this, all of it, would begin with ``Are you a foreign national?''

So that is the overbroad nature of this. The goal is to make sure we never ever have a foreign government interfering, and we share that goal. It was wrong in 2016. It was wrong in 2018. It would be wrong in 2020. That is why we need to make certain we do not have this kind of interference. No one wants foreign interference of any type in our government in any way, shape, or form.

To the Senator across the aisle, we didn't like it when we heard former President Obama say to David Medved: Tell Vladimir, I will have more flexibility after the election. We didn't appreciate that.

We didn't appreciate all that was transpiring back in 2015 with the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One. We had questions about that.

Do we want to make certain things such as that do not occur? Of course, but the UC that was presented is overbroad, and this is something that should be done in a thoughtful way. It should be done in a bipartisan way.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, first, I thank my friend from Virginia for offering this unanimous consent request. I express my severe, severe disappointment in our friends on the Republican side blocking it.

The bottom line is very simple. When a President feels it is more important to win an election than conduct a fair election, we are a step further away from democracy and towards autocracy. That is what dictators believe--winning at all costs. That seems to be what President Trump said yesterday.

The shame of this is that our Republican colleagues can't even bring themselves to say that when a foreign nation tries to interfere in our election, it ought to be reported to the FBI. How minimal. How minimal.

How disgraceful it is that our Republican friends cower before this President when they know that the things he does severely damage democracy. This one is a new low. It is OK for foreign powers to interfere, and we don't have to report it to law enforcement? That is welcoming foreign powers to interfere, and, as my friend from Virginia said, the President's own FBI Director said it is going to get worse in 2020. But our Republican friends say: Let's cover it up because it might have an effect that we like.

Today is a new low for this Senate, for this Republican Party here in the Senate, and for this democracy.

I would urge my friends, when they go home over the weekend--my friends on the other side of the aisle--to rethink this. We will offer this unanimous consent request again. To say that it is OK to interfere, that we shouldn't have any law enforcement, that we should have no knowledge, is to encourage Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran to interfere in our elections with no recourse. Shame. Shame.

It is truly outrageous that this unanimous consent request, which should bring all of us together, is being blocked by our Republican friends.

I thank my colleague for his wise, wise unanimous consent request.

I yield the floor.