Wyden Introduces Bill to Protect Campaigns, State Parties From Foreign Hackers

Statement

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today introduced a bill to defend campaigns and state parties against foreign hackers. The Federal Campaign Cybersecurity Assistance Act is the third bill Wyden has introduced this year to guard American democracy against cyberattacks, following legislation to protect election infrastructure and Senate cybersecurity.

This bill would allow national party committees to provide cybersecurity assistance to state parties, individuals running for office and their campaigns. Under current federal law, cybersecurity assistance is considered an "in-kind donation," effectively limiting the amount of cybersecurity support campaigns can receive from national parties.

"The 2016 election made it painfully clear that campaigns need more help defending against sophisticated cyber threats," Wyden said. "Foreign hackers successfully weaponized hacked emails to drive media coverage in 2016, but the government has done virtually nothing to protect campaigns from future attacks. The fastest way to make an impact and put more resources into protecting candidates from foreign hacking is to give parties the ability to help in the fight against dangerous foreign influence in our elections."

In recent years, Russian and other foreign hackers have targeted the networks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Congressional Committee (DCCC), Republican National Committee (RNC), the presidential campaigns of Republican and Democratic candidates among other political committees and campaigns. Emails from some of these accounts were leaked in 2016 in an effort to influence the results of the presidential election and others across the nation. The F.B.I. has already warned about foreign interference ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections.

The two other election security bills Wyden introduced this year are the Protecting American Votes and Elections Act, which mandates federal election cybersecurity standards, and the Senate Cybersecurity Protection Act, which permits the Senate to protect the personal electronic devices and accounts of senators and their staff from advanced cyber threats.

In December 2018, after a request from Wyden, the Federal Election Commission greenlit the use of leftover campaign funds to secure the personal devices of members of Congress.

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