Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act--Motion

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise tonight to join my colleagues in speaking to the need to immediately respond to Russian interference. I would like to thank Senator Whitehouse for bringing us together.

This evening, many of my colleagues have spoken about how Russian aggression affects Americans and our allies across the world. Some have discussed the need for sanctions to defer Russia and the fact that the administration has not yet imposed sanctions, the same sanctions that were passed by the Senate 98 to 2 and 419 to 3 in the House of Representatives. Those were the additional sanctions that were directly related to the interference in the elections and what we saw take place over the last year. They sit dormant.

Others have talked about the importance of Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and the fact that it must move forward without interference from the White House. Nearly a dozen Senators have come to the floor to highlight the need to stand up to Russia. I am here to talk about the critical need to safeguard the most fundamental part of our democracy--the U.S. elections.

Today, I heard the Prime Minister of Sweden address our Nation. When standing next to the President, he was asked a question about this, and he put it simply. He said that in their country, they believe that the people, the citizens of their country, should be the ones who make the decisions about their elections, that they are the ones who should be able to vote, that they are the ones who should be able to have their own opinions not be influenced by foreign countries acting as if they are people in their country.

It is the Presiding Officer who made the statement that I have quoted so many times--that in the last election, it was one candidate and one party, and in the next election, it could be the other candidate and the other party. We do not come here in a partisan way. We come here because the clock is ticking.

Today marks an important day in the 2018 election cycle. Texas is holding the first State primary, and others begin in the coming weeks, including in Illinois. Illinois was one of 21 States that the Russians attempted to hack into--Illinois, where they actually hacked into their voter data, which is the personal information about their voters. Those elections are coming. We are glad that we have a decentralized system so that they have different systems. It is easier to hack into one centralized system. It also means that they have many things to choose from, and we have 40 States that haven't updated their equipment in over 10 years. We have 10 States that don't even have backup paper ballots, and we sit here doing nothing when the solution is right in front of us.

Over the course of the last year, I have come to the floor a number of times to urge this body to take immediate action to beef up our election cybersecurity. There is no longer any doubt that our elections have been and will continue to be a target for foreign adversaries. Intelligence reports make it clear that Russia used covert cyber attacks, espionage, and harmful propaganda to attack our political system.

I mentioned the attempts on 21 State election systems. Do you know when the real election--the general election--is? It is 245 days away, with primaries beginning today. We have not imposed the sanctions--the administration hasn't--despite this body's taking firm action that we wanted to see these sanctions imposed.

We have had six security heads from this administration--not from the Obama administration; they already spoke out on this. The head of the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, and the head of the FBI have all testified before U.S. Senate committees that, in fact, this is happening now. It was Director Coats, who was once a Senator here, who said that, in fact, he believes the Russians are getting bolder. These are not the words of Obama's security people. These are the words of Trump's security people.

Last week, NSA Director Rogers said this about Russia: ``They haven't paid a price at least that is sufficient to get them to change their behavior.''

Earlier this year, CIA Director Pompeo said that he has seen no signs that Russia has decreased its activity and that Russia is currently working to disrupt the upcoming 2018 elections.

It is the policy of the United States of America to defend against and respond to threats to our Nation. This is a cyber attack. It is not with bullets, and it is not with tanks. It is not with aircraft, but it is an attack. It is, simply, using the computer system. In every briefing that I have gone to, this is always listed as one of the major ways in which foreign adversaries are going to attack our Nation--they are going to use the internet. Here we have it happening right here on our very democracy, itself.

In order to protect our election system, we need to do three key things.

First, we must give State and local officials the tools and resources they need to prevent hacks and safeguard election infrastructure from foreign interference. They need those resources now, not after the election, not after the primaries. Today, more than 40 States, as I mentioned, rely on electronic voting systems that are at least 10 years old. Do you think the Russians don't know that? Do you think I am giving away some state secret here? Of course they know that.

Ten years ago, on February 6, 2008, it was Super Tuesday for the 2008 Presidential election. A lot has changed in the last 10 years but not our voting equipment. It has remained the same. That is why I am leading bipartisan legislation with Senator Lankford. This is a bipartisan effort. We also appreciate our cosponsors Senators Harris, Graham, Collins, and Heinrich. We call this bill the Secure Elections Act. It would provide $386 million in grant funding for States to secure their elections systems. It is paid for. We found a pay-for.

We have a similar bill that is led by Congressman Meadows in the House--the head of the Freedom Caucus--because they understand that freedom is not cheap, that to guarantee freedom, you must have a secure democracy, and $386 million is just 3 percent of the cost of one aircraft carrier.

I think most Americans would agree that, as we see more and more sophisticated types of warfare happening, to not even pay attention to helping the States fund this election equipment that has been woefully underfunded is a huge mistake.

The second thing that we need to do--by the way we can do this now. We can do this in the omnibus bill. The second thing we need to do is improve information sharing so that local election officials know when they are attacked and how to respond. It took the Federal Government nearly a year to notify these 21 States that were targeted by Russian- backed hackers. That cannot happen again.

Finally, we need a reliable backup system. I am talking about paper backup ballots--the old-fashioned way. There are 10 States that don't have them.

The integrity of our election system is the cornerstone of our democracy. Americans have fought and died for our democracy since our country was founded, and we must guarantee that democracy continues.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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