Strengthen Our Country's Democracy

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on strengthening America's elections and the democratic process.

The task we face is very simple: Congress should secure elections from foreign interference and break down barriers that prevent Americans from accessing the ballot. And the SHIELD Act, which Congress will vote on this week, protects elections from foreign meddling by increasing oversight of campaign contacts and online political advertising.

U.S. citizens have a right to be fully informed of their ballot box choices without concerns of foreign interference. The 2016 election taught us in the United States many lessons as foreign governments sought to influence the outcome of our election.

The SHIELD Act builds on lessons learned from the 2016 election by creating an obligation to report contacts between campaigns and foreign nationals.

Additionally, the SHIELD Act presents modern-day solutions for the problems of manipulative online political advertisements by ensuring the same standards applied to other political ads will extend to these new advertisements.

Mr. Speaker, the House will vote on the SHIELD Act this week, and I urge Members of the House to vote for the SHIELD Act to strengthen our country's democracy.

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