Schneider, Other Delegation Members Meet with Department of Homeland Security on Illinois Election Security Efforts

Press Release

Meeting in response to Schneider-led letter signed by all 18 Illinois Members of Congress acknowledging Russia's meddling in 2016 election and requesting briefing from Administration
Today, Congressman Schneider and other members of the Illinois congressional delegation were briefed by officials from the Department of Homeland Security on ongoing federal efforts to bolster the security of election systems in Illinois and across the country.

Today's meeting follows a July 2018 letter led by Schneider and signed by all 18 House members of the Illinois congressional delegation urging federal action to improve Illinois's election security and requesting a briefing. The bipartisan request was made days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian military officers for targeting state voting systems in the months before the 2016 election. The discussion shed additional light on the breach of the Illinois State Board of Elections, which compromised personal data on tens of thousands of voters, including names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

"I'm proud to have led my colleagues in requesting this important briefing because securing our elections is not a Democratic or Republican issue," said Schneider. "We must continue to work together to ensure every American's has confidence in the integrity of their vote and faith in the honest outcome of the election. I appreciated today's update from the Department of Homeland Security and their coordination with our state officials in Illinois. I know our state and local election officials take the threat of foreign interference seriously and are working diligently to strengthen our election infrastructure."

A copy of the letter is available online.

Background:

In February 2018, Schneider met with the County Clerks for Cook and Lake Counties to discuss their efforts to improve election security.

Schneider joined with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) to introduce the bipartisan and bicameral DETER Act which seeks to deter future meddling by Russia and other foreign powers by instituting swift and automatic sanctions in response to future interference.

In response to questioning from Schneider in November 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions admitted he had "not followed through" on reviewing how the United States can better defend against future Russian interference and committed to "personally take action to do so."

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