Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I also share my thoughts with the folks at Abundant Life Christian School, and certainly to the students, the faculty, the staff, and the parents, and keep them very close in our hearts and very much in our prayers.
Mr. Speaker, I speak this afternoon in support of H.R. 9488, as amended, the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations Act, and I extend my thanks to Chairman Steil and his entire staff for their collaborative, bipartisan work to reach consensus on this bill before us.
House Democrats care deeply about the integrity of our elections. That will always be our North Star. Preventing fraudulent fundraising practices is a critical endeavor.
This bill would provide additional privacy and security protections for Americans who choose to engage in our democratic process by donating to political campaigns online. We are grateful, again, to the chair and his staff for agreeing to a number of changes we suggested that we believe were important revisions to the bill.
I will just review those briefly for the record here. For example, it includes changes to continue allowing recipients of Social Security and veterans' benefits to participate in the political process through small money donations; changes that would allow donors to continue to simplify the political donation process by scheduling recurring contributions and using saved credit card information; changes that further security without hampering innovation in how we finance our campaigns by creating special rules for contributions through digital wallets; and changes incorporating an FEC bipartisan legislative recommendation to prohibit aiding or abetting the making of a contribution in the name of another individual. This provision codifies a regulation first issued in 1989. It includes changes to give the FEC time to make appropriate regulations to ensure that payment processors and online platforms can continue to securely enable political donations.
At the same time, I will make sure Americans understand that our political contribution system is currently safe and secure. ActBlue, for example, which enables Americans to easily engage in our political process, is a platform that is already extremely secure and numerous safeguards are provided for donors.
ActBlue monitors activity on its platform to ensure that impermissible contributions are promptly identified and rejected. These existing measures prevent potential foreign contributions, protect donors from financial fraud, and identify fraudulent online behavior.
This bill supports the already safe online donation system. Americans can continue to trust that our elections, our political systems, generally speaking, are free, fair, and unaffected by fraud.
Providing credit and debit card CVVs in online contributions will help Americans feel secure in their contributions, but Americans should understand that the provision of CVVs this bill facilitates is in addition to numerous other antifraud security measures that already protect credit and debit card donors.
Regrettably, we have seen recent disinformation campaigns against the platform. Allegations of fraudulent donor schemes involving ActBlue, however, have been discredited and criticized by campaign finance experts.
These campaigns distort and often misunderstand campaign finance data.
I want all Americans to know our system is safe and that you should feel free to participate in it. That is what my support for this measure is all about today. We can further strengthen the security of our online donation systems and inspire donors who feel moved to participate.
I appreciate the work that has gone into this bill, the opportunity to ensure the record correctly reflects the secure reality of online donation systems, and I urge my colleagues to support this measure.
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Mr. MORELLE. Mr. Speaker, as I said, we support this bill strongly here. This is a critical priority for us to make sure Americans continue to have safety and feel confident in their system.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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