Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for A Lasting Democracy Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILMER. Mr. Chairman, I thank Congresswoman Lofgren for yielding and for her leadership on this critical election security package.

Mr. Chairman, foreign interests shouldn't be able to influence American elections, period. That is not a Democratic notion. It is not a Republican notion. That is an American notion. We know that there is an election just a year away, and we know that just this week one of the world's most prominent social media companies acknowledged that Russia, Iran, China, and other adversaries are actively working to interfere in our next elections.

This is a no-brainer. It is time to take real action to fix loopholes and protect our elections from foreign interference. That is why the SHIELD Act is so important. There is a ton in this bill, and I am proud that many of the components of the SHIELD Act are based on bills the New Democratic Coalition endorsed, among them the Honest Ads Act.

Right now if a candidate or a group runs political ads on television that is publicly available information. The public and the press are able to access that information on who is buying the ad, how much they are paying. Same thing on radio. But that is not true on social media. If an entity buys ads on social media, there are no disclosure requirements under the law, even though we know foreign adversaries are seeking to buy online ads.

The Honest Ads Act would change that, and that is why it is a bipartisan bill; 18 Democratic sponsors, 18 Republican sponsors, the chair of Senate Judiciary, the vice chair of the Intelligence Committee.

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Mr. KILMER. Mr. Chairman, they see this as a way to strengthen our democracy and our national security. To enable law enforcement and the press and others to better detect and investigate foreign involvement in our elections.

The House has a choice to make, a choice to keep loopholes open and continue to see threats against our democracy or a choice to take action and pass the SHIELD Act. I am proud to be a sponsor of this bill.

I thank Chair Lofgren and her team for their hard work on this, and I am confident the House will make the right choice and pass this bill.

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