Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, Relating to ``Contributions in Exchange for State or Local Tax Credits''

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am here today because, unfortunately, our elections still remain vulnerable to foreign election interference.

Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee, which I am proud to serve on, released its report on Russia's use of social media to undermine our democracy.

The committee's bipartisan conclusion was clear. Russia attacked our democracy in 2016; their efforts on social media are ongoing; and they will be back in 2020. Frankly, they never left.

This echos all of the evidence we have seen from the intelligence community and from companies like Facebook, whose CEO, Mr. Zuckerberg, is testifying on the other side of the Capitol today on some of the ongoing efforts. We have seen this evidence, as well, from Special Counsel Mueller and many, many others.

The alarm bells are going off, and what are we doing? We are running out of time to do something about it.

Twice in recent weeks I have come to the floor to make a unanimous consent request on bipartisan legislation, which I have introduced, called the FIRE Act, and twice this bipartisan legislation has been blocked by my Republican colleagues. Actually, their actions earned applause from the President on Twitter.

Again, let me once again go forward with what this bill does. It is pretty simple and very straightforward. It would say to all Presidential campaigns going forward: If a foreign power reaches out to your campaign, offering assistance or offering dirt on a political opponent, the appropriate response is not to say thank you; the appropriate response is to call the FBI.

When I first introduced this legislation, we were concerned about the Mueller report's finding that the Trump campaign welcomed the assistance of the Russian Government during the 2016 election.

At the time, I was also deeply alarmed by the President's comments in the Oval Office during the summer that he would entertain offers of foreign assistance in future elections.

A lot has happened since then, which makes this legislation more necessary than ever. In the time since I last spoke on the FIRE Act, the President has used his office to seek dirt on a political opponent, Mr. Biden. It appears he pressured the Ukrainians. In the middle of ongoing trade negotiations, he went on national television to call on China to investigate Mr. Biden.

He also, during this period of time, has used the bully pulpit to intimidate and threaten an intelligence community whistleblower. I am glad to see that many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have stood up for the integrity of the whistleblower program and the notions that whistleblowers are a critical part of keeping our system on the up and up and that whistleblowers should not be threatened.

We have also heard in these past few weeks--I am not going to get into all of the details--a lot of contradictory and, frankly, almost Orwellian claims about whether the President's asking a favor of the Ukrainian President is evidence of a quid pro quo. Then, just in recent days, we have seen a series of career diplomats coming forward, basically trying to validate the whistleblower's complaints.

I know the House is working on some of this, and our Senate Intelligence Committee is also looking at some of the counterintelligence concerns about the President's deals--about the President's deals particularly with Mr. Giuliani and his associates.

I have particular interest, as well, in terms of what the Attorney General is doing when he is going out, asking our closest allies--our FVEY partners, in the case of Australia and the United Kingdom--to use their intelligence services to bring us dirt on the President's political opponents. That puts in jeopardy the trust basis the Five Eyes plan operates under.

We need, more than ever, this basic FIRE Act bill to make it absolutely clear that if we see foreign governments interfering, the obligation ought to be on any Presidential campaign to tell the FBI.

I see my colleague on the other side of the aisle, and I know she will probably object again. I just hope my colleagues will think about and look back on how history is going to judge this body. Did we do what was necessary to protect the integrity of our democratic process? And how in the heck did we allow the protection of our democratic process to become a partisan issue? We would never make protection of the power grid a partisan issue. Yet, unfortunately, I think we are going to see folks on the other side of the aisle object to this commonsense basic reform.

If there are ways to improve on this legislation, I am wide open. I know my colleague raised concerns about the breadth. Let me be clear. Some of the claims that were made last time are not true, do not affect diplomatic efforts, do not affect folks who are visiting here in this country. We have been very, very clear. This is about a foreign government's offer or their spy service's offer of assistance during a Presidential campaign directly to that campaign.

But if there are ways to improve on the legislation, let's have it at it. Let's offer an amendment. Let's at least vote. The truth is, we know what we need to do to protect our elections.

Before I make my unanimous consent request, I want to recognize my friends and colleagues, Senator Klobuchar and Senator Wyden, who, after I make my request, will be speaking on a broader election security bill of which I am proud to be an original cosponsor as well. Let me simply say that I support their efforts to make sure we have paper ballot backups, to make sure we have postelection audits, to make sure if the Kremlin is paying for advertising on Facebook, they have the same kind of disclosure requirements as if they advertise on FOX--commonsense bipartisan proposals that, if they actually got to the floor of the Senate, I bet we would get 80 votes. My hope is that we will have that opportunity.

The truth is, the only person winning from our failure to act--and, unfortunately, this person seems to be winning, as well, in Syria and seems to be winning, as well, in terms of the split between America and Ukraine--is Vladimir Putin.

Again, I appeal to my colleagues: Let's move forward on the first step, protecting the integrity of our elections. Let's bring forward the FIRE Act. Let's make absolutely clear that if a foreign government tries to intervene in a Presidential election, the obligation is to report to the FBI and not say thank you.

2242, the FIRE Act; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be 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.

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I would allow my colleague to speak on this item. I say to my colleague from Tennessee, and others, that if there are ways to improve this legislation, let's have at it. But the notion that we are going into a Presidential election in which our intelligence community has said that Russia and others will be back, and we have taken no action to prevent that when there are commonsense items from social media constraints to making clear the foreign government shouldn't intervene, to having paper ballot backups, to making sure we have appropriate campaign disclosure, we are shirking our responsibility, and I hope in the future my colleagues will reconsider.

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