Ed Markey

If there is some group out there that can crack into the NSA and steal our cyber weapons and then we cannot talk about who they are, it is hard to have a public policy response in terms of what our paradox of them would be.

So in the spy versus spy world that we live, the fact that the National Security Agency lost control of powerful cyber weapons to the group known as Shadow Brokers raises questions about our own government, about our own NSA.

Like Stuxnet, we probably have some capacity which has been developed that we could paradox the Russians' or any other country's electrical grid system if they really wanted us to have to prove to them that we could reciprocate.

The consequences can be historic if you ignore the lessons of this last election and what happened in these other places.

Mr. Vice President--Senator, do not believe the fake news.

You would not have to worry. It would get developed and the costs would go down.

They are really focusing upon cybersecurity. It is a big, new industry for them.

I believe the U.S. Government should be on the forefront of promoting with, I would add, two of our closer friends and allies that are the other two most technologically savvy countries in the world, the UK and Israel.

I think you need to legislate on it.

It could be catastrophic if there is an attack on the electric grid.

You better take the warning because, if you do not both play defense and then have a strong deterrence posture, something bad is going to happen and we will regret we did not do more.

I think when it comes down to it, some of this stuff can be expensive and it can be complicated.

So when you were answering the questions of the chairman about the vulnerability of our government...

Turning to those Russian elections--the Russian interference in our elections, it does not have to be complex.

It is something that keeps national security people up at night worrying about how vulnerable our own national electricity system could be.

These security gaps could have an outsized impact on U.S. national security and economic prosperity.

I believe is going to be one of the most important hearings that is conducted here in Washington this week.

Unless you get a positive response from the Chinese Government and Mexican Government, then we have to escalate this up to the very top of the list of issues that our country expects the Trump administration to deal with.

What they are doing with that health care bill is absolutely--it is just wrong what they are doing.

It could lead to 23 million Americans losing their health insurance, people losing their opioid coverage for illnesses in their own families. And it is just absolutely wrong.

I wish that the Republican leadership was having open hearings, public input so that this massive health care bill, which is being constructed clandestinely, could be seen not only by the American public but by every Member of the Senate…

Slashing our foreign operations and foreign assistance makes the world more dangerous for Americans and for America.

The deep cuts to international affairs spending in your budget proposal is an approach to American foreign policy that is nothing less than a devastating assault on America's interests and values.

As I have said before, democracy does not defend itself.

America's leadership and engagement of global issues and with global leaders is perhaps more vital today than ever before.