[inaudible conversations] the committee will come to order and without objection the chair authorized to declare a recess at any time. Pursuant to the committee rule, the chair announces that she may postpone further proceedings today when a recorded vote is ordered on the question of proving a measure or matter on adopting an amendment. This morning we will consider h. R. 2722, the securing americas federal election act targeted bill to modernize the nations election infrastructure and responded t respond to the g attacks on our democracy. As we all should know and now appreciate ouit nowappreciate od as special counsel mueller said to interfere in our election in the 2016 president ial election. When outsiders meddle in our election if an attack on the country and we cannot release to the Cyber Attacks of the state actors on their own. While we have made progress to bolster our defenses it is clear from the analysis of our Intelligence Community and a host of independent experts from across the political spectrum that more must be done. Our state and local governments need the resources, knowhow and support to hard in the election infrastructure before americans head to the polls. In a little over 200 days, New Hampshire will hold the first primary election of the 2020s cycle. We must act now. This we know is not a partisan perspective. Quote, the warning lights were blinking red. To be clear that its not my assessment, but the administrations director of National Intelligence speaking about four in attacks o foreignr elections a little under a year thago. We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep adopting and upping their game. Yet again that is not my analysis but instead the administrations own fbi director who recently said our adversaries treated the 2018 midterms as a dress rehearsal for the01 big show of the 2020 president ial elections. Today we will act. This package of legislative reform will begin to respond with the urgency and the stark warnings deserve. The safe act will require Voting Systems to use individual durable voter verified paper ballots widely agreedupon reform to protect our elections from manipulation, expand risks limiting audits equipping the states with the systems needed to ensure the accuracy of the vote tallies in a sufficient manner andns authorize a 600 milliondollar Election Assistance CommissionGrant Program to assist in securing election infrastructure while providing states with 175 million biannual sustainment funding to help maintain the election infrastructure. This initial 600 million is beingg appropriated by the Financial Services and general government accounting appropriation bills and it will foster accountability for the Technology Vendors creating a qualified electionn infrastructure designation and muchneeded cybersecurity deadlines and implement safeguards to protect our systems from attack including prohibition on wireless communication devices and a prohibition on election systems internet interconnectivity. Ultimately, the actual improve the resilience of american elections, the goals that i know we all share a. Of today is an opportunity to Work Together to counter attacks on the elections and i now recognize Ranking Member davis for any Opening Statement he may have. Have. Thank you madam chair and you all for being here today. The infrastructure is aging and death risk. Congress should Work Together in a bipartisan way to put a solution on the table to address the problem. Hoection security shouldnt be a partisan issue and im disappointed the majority chose not to work with our public and colleagues all three of us on the committee for that bipartisan solution to strengthen the nations security and instead they decided to put forth legislation that stands no chance. Its disappointing for the American People who deserve a bill that allows them to trust in their system and have the votes preserved and protected. During the debate in the committee on hr one and a majority insisted the bill contained serious security components and if that is the case why are we here. Hr one fell flat in the media with Public Opinion now we are here discussing another bill federally mandating elections. This is simply more of the same. What we are not going to hear about today is the work done last congresss to provide fundig for election infrastructure and to create unprecedented Cooperation Among the states and federal stakeholders since the result not a single instance has been reported of interference in the 2018 midterms elections which experienced record midterm turnouts to not create the takeover of the systems thats why i introduced along with my colleagues mr. Walker that secured the assistance act that will provide assistance to the states in updating the formidable infrastructure and empowering the officials and provide Additional Resources for improving cybersecurity. These are what i was asked to do by my officials who are a Bipartisan Group of folks that work to secure elections at the local level in the district of illinois every clerk and official in my district who came to the meeting told me these the were their prioritthese arethei. A fundamental right of the nation is the ability to choose theos leaders. The American People deserve to have that right protected. We should secure and protect it without partisan politics. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. At this point, i would ask that the Opening Statements of all other members be included in the record without objection. I now call of hr 2722 the motion to report the title legislation. Its used to carry out for other purposes. Without objection the First Reading of the bill considered red and open for amendment at any point. The nature of the substitute offered by ms. Lofgren of california it may be cited without objection it will be considered as a grad for the purpose of the amendment and willor be opened for the amendmt at any point. I would like to take a moment here to explain it is in the amendment as you know we worked hard and had disagreements on hr one plus a about the need to secure our infrastructure and the remaining disagreements that disagreement is whether we mandate and whether we work in a different way with caret more than sticks. If they had attacked with military weapons they attacked us and it could be the chinese they are not too happy with what we are doing right now and the nonstate actors i believe its important that we as a nation responding which is why it creates a qualified election infrastructure vendor designation in conjunction with dhs this includes any known or suspects cybersecurity instance asand grants would be committed for those qualified vendors it includes specific cybersecurity standards that apply to the paper optical scanning Voting Systems and there will be another set of standards applied to the marking devices. Its built in a manner where ita is impossible for it to add or change the votes and it consists of hardware certified by the Homeland Security into the device is not capable tabulating votes i think it is enormously important as a requirement and also because we know that we have a Disability Community that has an absolute right to vote even if they are not able to mark with a pencil they have the capability to meet their needs. We require the use of hardware and software for which information is disclosed by the manufacturer to the open source and we also prohibit wireless communication devices. We found and have seen reports on the fbi that the Voting Systems are connected to wireless communication systems. That is just a nightmare for the systems that they be prohibited from the marking devices and optimal scanners would prohibit Internet Connectivity we think that this is a sound measure and its important to proceed. We have when we returned after the fourth of july recess 17 legislative days before the august recess, and we have appropriation bills that have eaten up on schedule certain members of the house its taken a blog period of time so if we have the window to move the bill we need to take it. Any member seeking recognition for the amendments. I have an amendment at the desk. The staff will distribute the amendment. Offered by mr. Rodney davis this act may be cited as a Security Assistance act. Section 2 grams the Administration Improvement authorization of the funds notwithstanding section 104. With unanimous consent, the reading of the amendment is waived. The gentleman is recognized for five minutes in support of this amendment. This is the bill that was introduced by my colleagues and me that i believe would address many of the security concerns that we should have in a bipartisan way. This is a bill that preserves the system thatip we have whichs a decentralized system that allows for less opportunity for the various actors and foreign entities to be able to do various things. Lets be clear if this markup and if this bill is about foreign interference only we are missing the point about making sure officials have the resources they need and the flexibility that they need to continue to do what they do best at the local level. I can tell you a democratic county clerk in illinois mike and i have known each other since grade school, went to junior high together and you know what, hes in the other party but i know that he is going to run the most Fair Election as possible. He wants every vote be counted. We have a lot in every district in this country. But what this original piece of legislationhi does is take away his right to be able to number one afford to upgrade the Software Equipment and enforces and mandates a certain type of investment that they may have already planned to invest in another type in the future that does nothing to address the concerns that we all have as americans to keep the election safe and secure. Thats why our bill is a better bill. It doesnt have a onesizefitsall approach. Its the approach we were working on in a bipartisan way with the staff of the committee. Our staff sitting down talking about how we can come up with a bipartisan solution, something that we havent seen a lot under the democratic majority in the congress. I dont know what bipartisan success any colleagues on the other side will be able to recall. If theres anything that should be bipartisan it is Election Security, but instead, again, the far left of the Democratic Party decided to leave this committee and also this congress into a piece of legislation that is a lot more about the show then helping people exist in Christian County illinois. That is unfortunate. But here we go again. If we want to do something together, the election securities act will provide states to update their equipment. Thats what democrats and republican officials in my district told me they needed them most. Our bill does that. It keeps the decentralization. If we are worried about the various actors, the last thing we want is a congress is the federal government and registration and vote counting. We dont have a lot coming in wondering whether or not its is good to be aer fair account clearly there are some instances in North Carolina recently where we have bad actors that will likely go to jail. Ironically for using the same process that is illegal in other suates but we have to have an amendment to outlaw that and i hope that my colleagues can join us there. Lets stop playing games. To talk about this in a bipartisan way, and again a democratic majority did not live up to the promise they made to the American People that they wanted to work with us. Thats unfortunate. I certainly hope it changes and i hope im not optimistic, but i certainly hope my colleagues on the other side of the dais help support this amendment butid i n get you right now i can give you the account of what its going to be. Thank you for the time. Ive got 22 seconds and i will reserve that time later but i will yield it back now. As a point of order is withdrawn, the amendment is germane. I appreciate the gentleman is offering a proposal that recognizes the Important Role that the federal government has in the Election Security although with a different approach. D i do need to impose this amendment. I fully appreciate your telling of the proposal that could be a step forward from the status quo. However, voter verified paper ballot or the solution that would address the risk and threats that our nation faces unlike the gentlemans amendment voter verified paper ballots are with the safe act provides in section 103 page 396 through 24 into the Security Experts urged congress to adopt. Adopt. Voter verified paper ballots are the best way to ensure that its counted as cast. Voters should be able to see the vote clearly and verified devotedly intended to cast is the one recorded in the cases where there becomes necessary. It also requires risk limiting audits which are Cost Effective and go handinhand with paper. These requirements are section 3038 page 41 line nine. If they really are the Gold Standard of Election Security and will address the National Emergency the nation faces and thats why i think we ought to maintain our commitment to the proposal moreover unlike the gentlemans amendment the safe act section 201 b. On page 53 starting at line three expressly prohibits wireless and Internet Connectivity systems or devices upon which the ballots are marked by the voters or upon which they are cast, tabulated are aggregated. This is an important and basic cybersecurity standard we ought to require. Nobody thinks connecting the systems to the internet is a good idea. Sometimes lowtech is the best defense to a hightech threat so i would urge a no vote on the amendment. Does any member wish to be recognized for the purpose of offering an amendment . The gentleman is recognized. With a representative is offerinthe representative isofft i would yield back sometime. Thank you. Sorry, madam chair. I know our colleagues thought i was stunned that i done doing w minutes. My good friend, listen i certainly hope we can come together after this bill is forced to the floor and likely again it will be a bipartisan roll call vote i hope we can come together on the positions we agree with. I would urge each member on my side of the aisle and the other side meet with your local officials and frankly that is why we have the Security Assistance act. They dont want a heavy hand on washington and we are talking about technology. Im sure theres a lot of technological experts in the Security Experts but ill say every single county in the United States should have this certain type of system. What about those that invested their hardearned tax dollars and equipment that may be just as secure but all of a sudden theyve got to come in because the federal government says youre going to do this and what are we doing to limit or faults with technology thats why we haveve provisions to account for future technological advances. It wasnt too long ago everybody filed their tax returns on paper. Are we requiring that to happen again . Technology will change when it comes to elections and Election Security that can do a lot of things. It may allow the polling to be less. If they allow for more polling places to exist because the technological advances and by the way, i know some may disagree with this and say that it may never happen but it could beer more secure so what are we doing with this piece of legislation limiting the ability to bring new and Safer Technology into the systems . With not do this. Thats whym . We need to pass ths amendment we have provisions in place and i certainly hope my colleagues will join me in making that happen. We even had a hearing not long ago. They are supposed to be the ones administering many of the things my colleagues want to pass in their bill they are supposed to be doingis this already. We had a hearing with officials that i wish we would have talked more about what they were doing to protect our security in this country but instead it is a person now reading over who likes whom and who doesnt. Thats where we are at right now. Thats why we need to be serious about this. Your own witnesses said with voter verified paper they are safe in the one hearing that we had. Why are we now at the federal level mandating people like this in illinois to do something and have to pay for something that may not be the most secure process so that i would urge a yes vote on my amendment and yield back to my colleague. The gentleman yield spec. It does any other member, the gentle lady from ohio is recognized. I just want to say a lot of the things i do agree with that he made a comment on the record i really want to clarify. He made the comments that wouldt happened in North Carolina is the legal in most places which in fact is not true. Not submitting or changing them isnt legal anywhere so lets make the record clear. I yield back. Any other member wish to be