Chris Van Hollen: “right now, as we are gathered here on the Senate floor, the Senate and House conferees are in the process of trying to…”

“right now, as we are gathered here on the Senate floor, the Senate and House conferees are in the process of trying to negotiate a final agreement on the NDAA. That is the National Defense Authorization Act. One of the key issues in the final discussions over the NDAA involves a provision designed to protect the integrity of American elections against outside interference from Russia or any other adversary. It is a provision based on bipartisan legislation that Senator Rubio and I introduced over a year ago to deter Russian interference in a future American election. The legislation is called the DETER Act, the idea being: Let's deter Russia from attacking our democracy. I believe it would be grossly negligent for the conferees to the National Defense Authorization Act to bring back to the House and the Senate a measure that does not include a provision to defend our democracy from Russian interference. The entire Senate must share that sentiment because we unanimously voted on a resolution just a short time ago to include such a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act. I have in my hand a copy of that resolution. It was S. Res. 330. It instructs the managers on the part of the Senate on bill S. 1790--that is the National Defense Authorization Bill--to require certain measures to address Federal election interference by foreign governments.…”