Election Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Looking back on this work period, it is a shame that the Senate, once again, has made no progress--none--on the issue of election security.

Only a week ago, Special Counsel Mueller called Russia interference one of the greatest threats to democracy he has seen in his career, a threat that he said continues ``as we sit here.''

Despite Mueller's warning--a warning echoed by prominent Republicans, Trump appointees, such as FBI Director Wray, Director Coats, and our entire Senate Intelligence Committee led by Richard Burr, a colleague of ours--Leader McConnell has not brought election security to the floor. In fact, he has blocked Democratic requests for a debate on election security, dismissing our ideas as a ``partisan wish list.'' That is political rhetoric to avoid a problem that shouldn't be partisan at all.

Using paper ballots is not partisan. Making sure that our election machines are safe from hacking is not partisan. Giving the States resources to better manage their elections is not partisan. That is American. Our elections are sacrosanct and these are commonsense, widely agreed-upon reforms that will make our elections safer, particularly in this dangerous new world where powers that have malice toward the United States--Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea--can use new technology to reach into our election structure.

This is not 1940 or even 2005. We need to strengthen our election security, and it should not be a partisan issue. When Leader McConnell calls it a partisan issue, he is ducking to avoid it for reasons unknown to almost anybody.

Recent Republican opposition to election security has been disappointing. I say to my Republican colleagues: Where are you? Why aren't you telling the Republican leader that we ought to do something? Every one of our Republicans is complicit when Leader McConnell blocks election security because they could join with us. If they began to join with us, my guess is that Leader McConnell might put some legislation on the floor. We want to debate it. We want to discuss it. Leader McConnell and our Republican colleagues may not exactly agree with our ideas--although many are bipartisan--but we should at least bring things to the floor, discuss them, and get something done. Unfortunately, we don't see much action.

It was precisely a year ago that the Democrats last sought to secure funding for election security when the Senate Republicans voted down our amendments. Unfortunately, it appears that Leader McConnell will not take action before the August work period. Yet I assure the American people and Leader McConnell that this issue is not going away. The Democrats will press for election security when we return and again when the Senate debates appropriations bills.

This is about protecting the wellspring of our democracy, the vitality of our democracy, and the sacrosanct nature of our democracy. To call it political demeans everything. Young men and young women from Bunker Hill on--for hundreds of years--have died to protect our elections. You have to protect them in a different way now with there being technology and cyber threats, but the idea of protecting them burns just as brightly in the American heart, and Leader McConnell is somehow impervious to all of that.

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