House Passes SHIELD Act to Protect American Elections from Foreign Interference

Statement

Today, the House passed the broad election protection package H.R. 4617, the Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act. Included within the SHIELD Act is H.R. 4703, the DEFEND Act (Defending Elections from Foreign Efforts to Negate Democracy), a bill introduced by Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17).

The DEFEND Act would prohibit foreign nationals from paying to promote, attack, support, or oppose American candidates online. This legislation protects our domestic elections by:

narrowing the existing definition of prohibited internet activity funded by foreign nationals to close dangerous loopholes;
prohibiting payments to compensate a party for making illegal online campaign contributions by foreign nationals;
clarifying that any person who acts either as an agent of a foreign principal, or under their direction, cannot pay for internet activity that supports or attacks a candidate in an election; and
adding foreign political parties to the list of those prohibited from engaging in these types of activity.
"Foreign governments want to lie to the American people. This is simple, let's keep them out of our elections and debate these things ourselves," said Lamb .

"Throughout his military career and now in Congress, Rep Conor Lamb has been committed to protecting our national security. He understands that this isn't a Democratic cause or a Republican cause - it's an American cause. We applaud Rep. Lamb for his unwavering commitment to ensuring our elections are free from undue foreign interference," said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United Action Fund.

End Citizens United Action Fund, an arm of the campaign finance reform group, encourages ECU's four million members to call their elected officials, host petition drives, participate in letter to the editor campaigns, and join coalitions of other grassroots advocacy groups to pass legislation to help get big money out of politics.

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